I 


GEORGE  PEABODY, 


FAMOUS 


LONDON  MERCHANTS. 


A  BOOK  FOR  BOYS. 


H-  F3S0S" 
137 


By  H.  R.  FOX  BOURNE, 

AUTHOR  OF 

“ENGLISH  MERCHANTS,”  “ENGLISH  SEAMEN  UNDER  THE  TUDORS,” 
“A  MEMOIR  OF  SIR  PHILIP  SIDNEY,”  ETC. 


WITH  TWENTY-  FIVE  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


c. 


NE  W  YORK: 

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PREFACE. 


'"THIS  little  volume  follows  the  method  pursued 
in  my  “  English  Merchants  ;  Memoirs  in  Il¬ 
lustration  of  the  Progress  of  British  Commerce,” 
which  was  published  two  years  ago.  It  is  design¬ 
ed  to  furnish  younger  readers  with  some  account  of 
the  growth  and  influence  of  trade,  and  the  work 
and  character  of  its  heroes.  Some  of  the  lives 
here  sketched  have  been  alluded  to  or  detailed  in 
the  larger  work.  Where  the  same  ground  has 
been  travelled  over,  free  use  has  been  made  of 
what  has  already  been  written,  but  with  such  alter¬ 
ations  of  style  and  substance  as  seemed  to  be 
called  for  by  the  different  purpose  now  in  view. 
The  whole  series  of  biographies,  however,  has  been 
drawn  from  London  history ;  and  as  far  as  seem¬ 
ed  consistent  with  the  proper  handling  of  the  theme, 
the  work  is  limited  to  the  sphere  of  London  com¬ 
merce. 

Having  thus  borrowed  from  my  own  book,  I 
have  also-availed  myself  of  the  researches  of  oth¬ 
er  writers.  In  a  small  volume  making  no  preten¬ 
sions  to  completeness,  and  not  many  to  originality, 
it  has  appeared  to  me  unwise  to  cumber  the  pages 
with  foot-notes,  specifying  each  precise  obligation, 


Vlll 


Preface. 


and  authenticating  every  single  statement.  It 
may  be  enough  here  to  acknowledge  the  use  made 
of  Mr.  Lysons’s  “  Model  Merchant  of  the  Middle 
Ages,”  in  the  chapter  on  Whittington,  and  of  Mr. 
Burgon’s  “  Life  of  Sir  Thomas  Gresham,”  in  the 
chapter  on  the  greatest  merchant  of  Tudor  times ; 
and  to  record  the  help  derived  from  Mr.  Charles 
Knight’s  “  Shadows  of  the  Old  Booksellers,”  from 
Mr.  J.  C.  Colquhoun’s  “Wilberforce  and  his 
Friends,”  and  from  Mrs.  Geldart’s  “  Memorials 
of  Samuel  Gurney,”  respectively,  in  preparing  the 
sketches  of  Guy,  Thornton,  and  Gurney.  The  ob¬ 
ligations  to  older  sources  of  information,  though 
still  greater,  hardly  need  be  specified.  Notes 
made  from  old  folios  and  quartos,  from  manu¬ 
script  collections  and  private  sources,  during  some 
years  of  inquiry  into  commercial  history,  have  been 
used  wherever  they  were  applicable  to  the  subject 
of  the  volume. 


London,  Dec.  15, 1868. 


H.  R.  F.  B. 


CONTENTS. 


I.  Sir  Richard  Whittington.  [1353-1423.] 

The  Dick  Whittington  of  the  Story  Books  and  the  Dick 
Whittington  of  History — Whittington’s  Parentage — His 
Training  as  a  London  Apprentice — The  Growth  of  Lon¬ 
don  and  its  Commerce  —  Old  Trading  Companies  and 
Guilds  —  Old  London  Merchants  :  Henry  Fitz-Alwyn  ; 
William  and  Nicholas  de  Farendon  ;  William  Walworth ; 
John  Philpot — Whittington  as  Sheriff  of  London  under 
Richard  II.  —  An  Old  Holiday  Show — Whittington  as 
Mayor — His  Trading  Occupations — His  Services  to  Hen¬ 
ry  IV.  and  Henry  V.  —  His  Charitable  and  Religious 
Work — Whittington  College — Guildhall  Chapel  and  Li¬ 
brary — The  Library  of  Gray  Friars’  Monastery — Whit¬ 
tington’s  Death  and  Threefold  Burial . Page  15 

II.  Sir  Thomas  Gresham.  [1519-1579-] 

The  Elder  Greshams — Sir  Richard  and  his  Work — Birth 
and  Training  of  Sir  Thomas  Gresham — The  Mercers  and 
the  Merchant  Adventurers  —  English  Trade  with  the 
Netherlands — Gresham  in  Antwerp — His  Occupations  as 
Factor  to  Edward  VI.,  Queen  Mary,  and  Queen  Eliza¬ 
beth — His  Duties  as  Banker,  Financial  Agent,  and  Am¬ 
bassador — His  Residence  and  Employments  in  London 
— Queen  Elizabeth’s  London — The  Building  of  the  Royal 
Exchange  —  Queen  Elizabeth’s  Visit  to  it  —  Gresham’s 
House  in  Bishopsgate  Street — His  House  at  Osterley, 
and  Entertainment  of  the  Queen  there — His  last  Occupa¬ 
tions  and  Death .  41 


X 


Contents. 


III.  Sir  Edward  Osborne.  .  [1530-1591.] 

Old  London  Bridge  and  its  Houses — Sir  William  Hewit  and 
His  Daughter  Anne — Ned  Osborne’s  Prowess  in  Saving 
her  from  Drowning — His  Reward — His  City  Associates  : 
Sir  Lionel  Ducket ;  Sir  John  Spencer ;  Richard  Staper 
— The  Firm  of  Osborne  &  Staper — -.The  Formation  of 
the  Turkey  or  Levant  Company,  with  Osborne  for  its 
Governor — Trade  and  War — A  Famous  Fight  between 
English  Merchantmen  and  Spanish  Galleys — Osborne’s 
Work  as  Sheriff  and  Lord  Mayor — The  Beginnings  of 
English  Trade  with  India — Osborne’s  Death — His  Ducal 
Descendants . ... . . Page  65 

IV.  Sir  William  Herrick.  [1557-1653.] 

Old  John  Herrick  of  Leicester — His  Sons  Robert  and  Nich¬ 
olas —  William  Herrick’s  Early  History  —  His  Letters 
from  Home — Mary  Herrick  and  her  Father — Sir  Wil- 
'  liam  Herrick’s  Occupation  as  a  Goldsmith — His  Favor 
with  Queen  Elizabeth  and  with  James  I. — His  great  Ri¬ 
val  and  Friend,  George  Heriot  —  Heriot  in  Edinburgh 
and  in  London — Herrick’s  Services  to  James  I. — His 
Retirement  in  Leicestershire  —  His  Wife,  the  Lady 
Joan .  82 

V.  Sir  Thomas  Smythe.  [1560-1625.] 

Thomas  Smythe,  the  Customer — His  Enterprising  Son — 
The  Formation  of  the  East  India  Company,  with  Sir 
Thomas  Smythe  as  its  First  Governor — His  Troubles  as 
Sheriff — His  Share  in  the  Management  of  the  East  India 
Company — Its  Early  History — The  First  Expedition  un¬ 
der  Sir  James  Lancaster — The  “Trades’  Increase,”  and 
its  Disastrous  Voyage  under  Sir  Henry  Middleton — Wil¬ 
liam  Adams — Sir  Thomas  Roe’s  Visit  to  the  Great  Mo¬ 
gul — Progress  of  the  East  India  Company — Sir  Thomas 
Smythe’s  other  Work — The  Early  History  of  Virginia— 
Smythe’s  Share  in  its  Government — Smythe’s  Contem¬ 
poraries  :  Sir  Thomas  and  Sir  Hugh  Myddelton — The 
New  River,  and  its  Opening— Sir  Thomas  Smythe’s  last 
Occupations  and  Death — His  Charities .  98 


Contents. 


xi 


VI.  Sir  Henry  Garway.  [1570-1645.] 

Sir  Henry  Garway’s  Early  Employments — -.The  State  of 
Trade  in  his  Time — The  Levant  Company — Sir  Richard 
Gurney — The  Conduct  of  Garway  and  Gurney  in  Sup¬ 
port  of  Charles  I.  and  their  Troubles  in  the  Common¬ 
wealth  Times . . . Page  132 

VII.  Sir  Dudley  North.  [1641-1691.] 

Dudley  North’s  Schooling — His  Trading  Adventures  and 
Achievements  in  the  Levant — His  Occupations  in  Lon¬ 
don — Sir  Josiah  Child  and  the  East  India  Company — 
Dudley  North’s  Work  as  Sheriff  of  London— His  “  Dis¬ 
courses  upon  Trade — His  Marriage  and  Married  Life 

— His  Employments  in  Retirement — His  Death .  138 

• 

VIII.  Thomas  Guy.  [1644-1724.] 

Old  Korsleydown  and  its  Traders — Thomas  Guy’s  Parent¬ 
age  and  Youth — The  Great  Fire  of  London — A  Young 
Bookseller  and  his  Occupations — Guy’s  Trade  in  Cheap 
Bibles — His  Marriage  Project  and  its  End — William  Pat¬ 
erson  and  the  Bank  of  England — Its  Effect  on  Commerce 
•  — The  Great  Stock-jobbing  Mania — The  South  Sea  Bub¬ 
ble — Guy’s  Prudent  Stock-jobbing — His  Wise  Use  of  his 
Wealth — Guy’s  Hospital .  158 

IX.  William  Beckford.  [1708-1770.] 

The  Beckfords  in  Jamaica — William  Beckford’s  Schooling 
— The  Rise  of  Trade  with  America  and  the  West  Indies 
— Its  Benefits  to  England — Beckford’s  Share  in  it — His 
Parliamentary  Life  —  His  Employments  as  Alderman, 
Sheriff,  and  Lord  Mayor  —  George  III.  and  the  Lord 
Mayor’s  Show — David  Barclay — Beckford’s  Great  Feast 
— Sir  John  Barnard — Beckford’s  Radicalism — His  Quar¬ 
rel  with  George  III. — His  Death  and  Character— Chat- 
terton’s  Elegy  on  Him . . .  189 

X.  Henry  Thornton.  [1762-1815.] 

Robert  and  John  Thornton — John  Thornton’s  Charity  and 
Piety  —  Wilberforce  and  the  Clapham  Party  —  Henry 


Contents. 


xii 


Thornton  as  a  Banker — The  Progress  of  Banking — The 
Hoares — Thomas  Coutts — Henry  Thornton  in  Parlia¬ 
ment — His  Share  in  the  Reform  of  the  Bank  of  England 
His  Philanthropic  Labors  —  Thornton  and  Wilberforce 
— Thornton’s  Connection  with  Hannah  More — His  Sierra 
Leone  Colony — His  Various  Occupations — His  Literary 
Work — His  Death . Page  207 

XI.  Nathan  Meyer  Rothschild.  [1776-1836.] 

The  Rothschilds  in  Frankfort — Nathan  Rothschild  in  Man¬ 
chester — His  Settlement  in  London — The  Jew  Bankers 
of  London  —  The  Brothers  Goldsmid  —  The  Barings  — 
Rothschild’s  Money-making  —  The  Battle  of  Waterloo, 
and  Rothschild’s  Gains  by  it — His  Mercury  Trick — His 
Foreign  Loans  —  His  Jokes  —  Brigand-like  Bankers  — 
Rothschild’s  Death  and  Wealth .  231 

XII.  Samuel  Gurney.  [1786-1856.] 

The  Old  Gurneys — Samuel  Gurney’s  Training — The  House 
of  Overend,  Gurney,  &  Company — The  Modern  Money- 
Market — Gurney’s  Services  to  it  —  His  Charitable  and 
Philanthropic  Actions — His  Death .  249 

XIII.  George  Peabody. 

The  Peabody  Family — George  Peabody’s  Training  and  Oc¬ 
cupations  in  America^ — His  Settlement  in  London — The 
Crisis  of  1837  —  Peabody’s  Business  as  Merchant  and 
Banker — His  Services  as  an  Anglo-American — His  Ben¬ 
efactions  in  America — The  Peabody  Lodging-Houses  in 
London — The  Commerce  of  Modern  London — Imports 
and  Exports — The  Docks  of  London — Bullion  and  other 
Money-1— The  Money-Market  and  the  Stock  Exchange — 
Conclusion  :  The  Progress  of  Commerce,  and  its  Services 
to  Civilization .  267 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


George  Peabody . frontispiece 


PAGE 

Sir  Richard  Whittington . 17 

Guildhall  Chapel,  London .  34 

Christ’s  Hospital,  London .  36 

Sir  Thomas  Greshapi .  39 

Mercer’s  Hall,  Cheapside .  43 

A  Flemish  Merchant  of  the  16th  Century .  47 

An  English  Merchant  of  the  16th  Century .  49 

The  First  Royal  Exchange . 57 

Crosby  Hall,  London .  61 

The  Ancient  Chapel  of  Thomas  a  Becket,  afterward  a 

Shop  and  Warehouse,  on  London  Bridge .  66 

A  Galley  of  the  16th  Century .  73 

An  East  Indian  C arrack  of  the  16th  Century .  101 

The  First  East  India  House .  119 

The  Last  East  India  House .  123 

Sir  Hugh  Myddelton .  128 

Sir  Josiah  Child .  146 

William  Paterson .  168 

The  Second  Royal  Exchange .  174 

The  South  Sea  Bubble . 181 

Thomas  Coutts .  215 

The  Tower  of  London .  266 

Portrait  of  the  Queen  presented  to  George  Peabody....  280 

The  Present  Royal  Exchange .  283 

London  Stone .  291 


FAMOUS 


LONDON  MERCHANTS. 


i. 


SIR  RICHARD  WHITTINGTON. 

[1353-1423.] 

IEF  of  all  the  great  merchants  of  London 


during  the  Middle  Ages  is  Richard  Whitting¬ 
ton,  not  quite  the  same  Dick  Whittington  who  lives 
in  the  story-book,  but  a  Whittington  whose  worth 
is  only  shown  more  clearly  by  divesting  the  popu¬ 
lar  narrative  of  its  fables,  and  adding  to  it  the  sure 
facts  of  history. 

Dick  was  not  a  beggar-boy  who,  running  away, 
when  he  was  seven  years  old,  from  a  home  in  which 
there  was  nothing  to  make  him  happy,  and,  hearing 
that  the  streets  of  London  were  paved  with  gold 
and  silver,  worked  his  way  thither  to  be  saved  from 
starvation  by  a  good-natured  merchant  of  Leaden- 
hall  Street,  named  Fitzwarren.  He  was  the  young¬ 
est  son  of  Sir  William  Whittington,  who  was  de¬ 
scended  from  an  old  Warwickshire  family,  and 


1 6  The  Story-Book  Version. 

owned  estates  in  Gloucestershire  and  Hereford. 
The  father  died  in  1360,  and  the  estates  passed 
to  the  eldest  son.  Dick,  who  was  then  only  a 
child  not  more  than  five  or  six  years  old,  seems, 
as  soon  as  he  was  old  enough,  to  have  been  sent 
up  to  London,  there  to  become  a  merchant.  A 
London  Merchant,  at  any  rate,  he  became,  though 
in  what  precise  way  we  are  not  told. 

We  may,  if  we  like,  accept  the  version  of  the 
story-book,  and  believe  that  he  was  for  a  long 
time  little  better  than  a  scullion  in  his  master’s 
house ;  that  he  was  much  favored  by  Mistress 
Alice,  his  master’s  daughter,  but  much  persecuted 
by  a  “vile  jade  of  a  cook,”  whose'bidding  he  had 
to  follow ;  that  at  length  his  master,  sending  a 
shipful  of  merchandise  to  Barbary,  permitted  each 
one  of  his  servants  to  add  something  to  the  cargo ; 
and  that  he,  poor  fellow,  having  nothing  better, 
contributed  a  cat,  which  he  had  bought  for  a  pen¬ 
ny,  and  set  to  destroy  the  rats  and  mice  which  in¬ 
fested  his  garret ;  that,  while  the  ship  was  on  her 
voyage,  the  cook’s  tyranny  so  troubled  him  that  he 
ran  away,  and  had  gone  as  far  as  Bunhill  Fields, 
when  the  belfs  of  Bow  Church  seemed  to  call  to 
him, 

“  Turn  again,  Whittington, 

Lord  Mayor  of  London  j” 

and  that  when,  in  obedience  to  the  call,  he  went 
back  to  Leadenhall  Street,  he  found  that  his  cat 
had  been  sold  to  the  King  of  Barbary  for  a  large 
sum  of  money ;  and  that  this  money  helped  him 


SIR  RICHARD  WHITTINGTON. 
Lord  Mayor  of  London. 


B 


Fables  and  Facts. 


r9 


to  become  the  richest  merchant  of  his  time.  The 
money  paid  for  the  cat  must  have  been  vastly  less 
than  the  ,£100,000  of  which  tradition  speaks,  and 
most  of  the  wealth  with  which  he  started  in  busi¬ 
ness  on  his  own  account  must  have  been  made 
up  of  his  patrimony  and  of  the  fortune  that  came 
with  his  wife,  who,  though  a  Mistress  Alice,  was 
the  daughter,  not  of  a  merchant,  but  of  a  Sir  Hugh 
Fitzwarren,  owner  of  much  property  in  Glouces¬ 
tershire  and  other  counties. 

The  popular  account  of  his  youth,  however, 
may  be  partly  true.  No  one,  however,  rich  and 
high-born,  might,  in  those  days,  follow  any  impor¬ 
tant  trade  in  London  who  was  not  a  member  of 
one  of  the  city  companies  or  guilds,  and  for  ad¬ 
mission  to  these  companies  it  was  necessary  to 
pass  through  some  years  of  rough  apprenticeship. 
Whittington,  we  know,  was  so  apprenticed  to  a 
member  of  the  Mercers’  Guild,  which  at  that  time 
engrossed  one  of  the  most  prosperous  branches  of 
the  tradesman’s  calling.  In  front  of  one  of  the 
shops  in  Cheapside  or  Cornhill,  which  then  were 
open  stalls  or  booths,  such  as  we  now  see  in  the 
markets,  he  must  have  had  to  stand,  day  after  day, 
offering  coats,  caps,  and  other  articles  of  haber¬ 
dashery  and  the  like,  to  passers-by;  and  when  the 
day  was  over,  he  must  have  gone  indoors  to  live 
in  a  garret,  or  worse,  to  do,  in  spite  of  his  gentle 
birth,  whenever  he  was  bid,  such  jobs  as  scullions 
nowadays  would  think  beneath  them  ;  and  to  as¬ 
sociate  with  rude  and  lawless  fellow-’prentices  — 


20  Whittington's  ’ Prentice-Life . 

lads  whose  play  was  generally  coarse  and  brutal, 
and  to  whom  fierce  brawls  and  deadly  fighting 
only  offered  special  opportunities  of  amusement. 
His  was  rare  luck  if  there  was  any  kind  Mistress 
Alice  at  hand  to  heal  the  wounds  of  body  and  of 
spirit  that  must  have  befallen  him. 

They  were  rough  times  in  which  he  lived — times 
in  which  the  modern  history  of  England  was  fairly 
beginning,  after  a  thousand  years  and  more  of  rude 
preparation.  London  had  been  growing  for  at 
least  fourteen  centuries.  Tacitus,  who  lived  in 
the  days  of  the  Emperor  Nero,  spoke  of  it  as  h>e- 
ing  then  “  famous  for  its  merchants  and  the  abun¬ 
dance  of  its  merchandise.”  Five  hundred  and 
fifty  years  afterward,  the  venerable  Bede  called  it 
“  a  mart  town  of  many  nations,  which  repaired 
thither  by  sea  and  land.”  The  Romans  had 
found  it  in  some  sort  of  prosperity,  and  it  had 
prospered  much  more  under  their  dominion.  The 
prosperity  had  continued  during  the  centuries  of 
Anglo-Saxon  colonization  and  progress ;  and  if 
there  was  some  hindrance  to  this  during  the  tur¬ 
moil  of  the  Norman  Conquest,  London  began  to 
be  a  far  more  influential  town  than  ever  as  soon 
as  those  turmoils  were  over.  “  London,”  says 
one  of  the  old  chroniclers,  writing  in  the  twelfth 
century,  “  is  a  noble  city,  renowned  for  the  opulence 
of  its  citizens,  who,  on  account  of  the  greatness  of 
the  city,  are  among  the  first  rank  of  noblemen.  It 
is  filled  with  goods  brought  by  the  merchants  of 
all  countries,  but  especially  with  those  of  Germany; 


Old  London  and  its  Trade. 


21 


and  when  there  is  a  scarcity  of  corn  in  other  parts 
of  England,  it  is  a  granary  at  which  the  article 
may  be  bought  more  cheaply  than  anywhere  else.” 
“To  this  city,”  says  another  writer  of  the  same 
century,  “merchants  repair  from  every  nation  of 
the  world,  bringing  their  commodities  by  sea  : 

“  Arabia’s  gold,  Sabaea’s  spice  and  gums, 

Scythia’s  keen  weapons,  and  the  oil  of  palms 
From  Babylon’s  deep  soil,  Nile’s  precious  gems, 
China’s  bright  shining  silks,  the  wines  of  France, 
Norway’s  warm  peltry,  and  the  Russian  sables, 

All  here  abound.” 

That  is  a  highly-drawn  picture  of  London  com¬ 
merce  under  the  early  Plantagenets.  The  “na¬ 
tions  of  the  world  ”  then  within  reach  of  England 
were  few  in  number,  and  the  merchants  were  more 
like  modern  peddlers  and  small  shopkeepers  than 
the  great  millionnaires  of  recent  times.  But  the 
London  of  that  period  was  as  great,  in  compari¬ 
son  with  other  towns  both  in  and  out  of  England, 
as  is  the  London  of  to-day ;  and  then,  as  now,  its 
greatness  was  chiefly  caused  by  its  commerce. 
This  commerce,  however,  was  mostly  in  the  hands 
of  foreigners.  English  merchants  worked  hard 
and  fared  well  at  home ;  but  they  were  less  en¬ 
terprising  than  the  merchants  of  other  countries, 
who,  not  content  with  pursuing  their  calling  in 
their  own  lands,  established  themselves  in  all 
other  districts  where  they  had  a  chance  of  getting 
trade  and  making  money.  The  foreign  merchants 
who  came  to  London  and  settled  in  it  were  chiefly 


22  Trading  Colonies  a?id  Guilds. 

Germans  and  Italians,  the  Germans  being  the  first 
in  the  field.  From  very  early  times  there  was  a 
curious  little  colony  of  German  traders  in  the  heart 
of  London.  On  the  banks  of  the  Thames,  near 
what  is  now  Dowgate  Wharf,  they  had  a  home  dur¬ 
ing  several  centuries.  Until  the  reign  of  Richard 
II.  one  large  building  served  both  as  a  residence 
for  the  merchants,  and  as  a  warehouse  for  their 
goods.  Then  a  second  building  was  granted  to 
them ;  and  soon  afterward  a  third  was  added, 
which,  having  been  previously  known  as  the  Steel- 
house  or  Steel-yard,  gave  its  name  to  the  whole 
establishment :  in  it  a  colony  of  German  merchants 
continued  to  reside  down  to  the  time  of  Elizabeth. 
There  they  carried  on  their  trade,  having  constant 
supplies  of  all  sorts  of  goods  brought  across  the 
seas  and  up  the  Thames,  to  be  deposited  at  their 
own  door,  and  thence  sold  to  the  London  traders. 
A  colony  somewhat  of  the  same  sort  was  formed 
of  Italians,  chiefly  Lombards,  a  little  farther  from 
the  river-side  :  and  the  record  of  their  settlement 
still  exists  in  the  name  of  Lombard  Street.  Near 
it  is  Old  Jewry,  once  the  special  residence  of  the 
Jewish  colonists. 

These  little  colonies  of  foreigners,  bound  to¬ 
gether  by  strict  rules,  and  pledged  in  all  ways  to 
help  one  another  in  their  various  occupations,  set 
the  fashion  of  guilds  or  trading  companies  of  En¬ 
glishmen.  When  and  how  they  first  began,  we  do 
not  know.  They  seem  to  have  existed  in  some 
shape  even  before  the  Norman  Conquest,  and 


The  Old  Lo7ido?i  Guilds.  23 

soon  after  that  event  they  became  of  great  impor¬ 
tance.  Edward  III.,  seeing  how  useful  they  were 
to  the  progress  of  commerce  and  of  the  nation 
which  owed  so  much  to  commerce,  did  all  he 
could  to  strengthen  them.  Forty-eight  separate 
guilds  were  recognized  by  him,  between  which  all 
the  business  of  the  city  was  divided.  No  one  was 
allowed  to  take  part  in  trade  unless  he  was  a  mem¬ 
ber  of  the  guild  established  for  his  special  calling, 
and  bound  himself  to  work  in  friendship  with  all 
the  other  members,  and  to  have  no  dealings  with 
any  unlawful  traders  who  were  members  of  no 
guilds.  One  good  feature  in  these  guilds  was  the 
care  with  which  they  were  pledged  to  assist  their 
aged  and  unfortunate  members  and  the  orphans 
of  all  who  died  young,  excellent  relics  of  which 
appear  in  the  many  city  charities  now  existing. 
They  were  not  merely  good,  however,  but  necessa¬ 
ry  to  the  times.  The  times  were  too  violent,  and 
commerce  was  too  small  and  weak  for  separate 
traders  to  be  able  to  hold  their  own  against  tyran¬ 
nical  barons  at  home,  pirates  on  the  sea,  and  ene¬ 
mies  in  foreign  lands.  It  was  only  by  association 
that  they  became  strong;  and  certainly  strength 
came  thus  to  the  merchants  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Some  of  the  old  guilds  were  devoted  to  work 
which  modern  merchants  would  repudiate.  The 
chandlers,  the  masons,  the  bakers,  the  hatters,  the 
barbers,  the  painters,  the  wood-sawyers,  and  the 
brushmakers,  were  concerned  in  occupations  that 
are  now  held  proper  for  small  tradesmen  and  arti- 


24  The  Grocers  and  the  Mercers. 

sans,  not  for  merchants.  Fishmongers  are  now 
generally  plebeians ;  yet  the  old  Fishmongers’ 
Guild  was  almost  the  most  aristocratic,  as  well  as 
the  oldest,  of  the  ancient  city  companies. 

The  names  of  some  are  misleading.  The  most 
influential  of  all  were  the  Grocers’  and  the  Mer¬ 
cers’  Guilds.  In  olden  times  the  mercers  dealt 
not  in  silks,  but  in  toys,  small  haberdasheries, 
spices,  drugs,  and  the  like.  They  were  at  first  in 
the  position  of  peddlers,  and  afterward  had  a  mis¬ 
cellaneous  trade  in  stray  commodities,  like  village 
shop-keepers  of  the  present  day.  Ultimately  they 
came  to  be  wholesale  dealers  and  great  merchants, 
though  their  business  was  still  nominally  confined 
to  trade  in  all  goods  intended  for  retail  sale,  all 
that  were  weighed  by  the  “  little  balance.”  The 
grocers,  who  were  also  called  pepperers,  came  to 
have  almost  the  same  trade.  Pepper,  cloves,  mace, 
ginger,  saffron- wood,  and  other  spices  ;  drugs  and 
dyes  ;  currants,  almonds,  rice,  soap,  cotton,  silver, 
tin  and  lead,  were  the  chief  articles  in  which  it 
was  proper  for  them  to  deal.  All  their  wares, 
however,  were  to  be  sold  by  the  “  gross  balance,” 
or  the  beams,  and  in  a  wholesale  way. 

Besides  these  trading  societies,  which  were  lim¬ 
ited  to  London,  and  had  counterparts  in  nearly 
every  other  English  town,  there  was  a  more  strict¬ 
ly  commercial  institution,  founded  nearly  two  hun¬ 
dred  years  before  Whittington’s  time.  This  was 
the  Society  of  Merchants  of  the  Staple.  “  The 
merchants  of  the  staple,”  says  an  old  writer,  “  were 


Ti'cide  in  Whittington's  Day.  25 

the  first  and  ancientest  commercial  society  in  En¬ 
gland,  so  named  from  their  exporting  the  staple 
wares  of  the  kingdom.  Those  staple  wares  were 
then  only  the  rough  materials  for  manufacture  : 
wqpl  and  skins,  lead  and  tin,  sheep-skins  and  leath¬ 
er,  being  the  chief.  The  grower  of  wool  content¬ 
ed  himself  at  first  with*  the  sale  of  it  at  his  own 
door,  or  at  the  next  town.  Thence  arose  a  sort 
of  middleman,  who  bought  it  of  him,  and  begot  a 
traffic  between  them  and  the  foreign  clothmakers, 
who,  from  their  being  established  for  the  sale  of 
their  wools  in  some  certain  city  commodious  for 
intercourse,  were  first  named  staplers.”  These 
staplers,  or  merchants  of  the  staple,  came  to  in¬ 
clude  all  the  most  enterprising  members  of  the 
various  guilds  in  and  out  of  London. 

This,  then,  was  the  trading  world  of  London  in 
which  Whittington  was  to  make  himself  famous. 
There  had  been  famous  merchants  before  him. 
Foremost  of  all  was  Henry  Fitz-Alwyn,  of  the 
Drapers’  Guild,  first  Mayor  of  London,  and  hold¬ 
er  of  the  office  for  a  quarter  of  a  century — from  its 
establishment  in  1189  to  the  time  of  his  death  in 
1214.  He  it  was  who  first  encouraged  the  citi¬ 
zens  to  build  their  houses  of  enduring  stone,  in¬ 
stead  of  the  wood  and  thatch,  which,  easily  catch¬ 
ing  fire,  caused  whole  quarters  to  be  frequently 
burned  down.  After  him  were  William  de  Far- 
endon,  of  the  Goldsmiths’  Guild,  who  was  Sheriff 
in  1281,  and  his  son,  Nicholas  Farendon,  who  was 
four  times  chosen  Mayor  between  1308  and  1323, 


26  Walworth  and  Wat  Tyler. 

and  who,  dying  when  Whittington  was  eight  or 
ten  years  old,  left  his  name  in  Faringdon  Street, 
which,  with  all  the  neighborhood,  belonged  to 
him. 

Two  other  great  merchants  were  also  alive  .in 
Whittington’s  youth.  One  of  these  was  William 
Walworth,  owner  of  the  stiburb  still  called  Wal¬ 
worth,  who  was  a  leading  member  of  the  Fish¬ 
mongers’  Guild,  and  Mayor  in  1373,  and  again  in 
1381.  The  latter  year  was  the  year  of  Wat  Ty¬ 
ler’s  rebellion.  It  was  Walworth  himself,  we  are 
told,  who  rushed  single-handed  among  the  crowd 
of  insurgents,  and  slew  Wat  Tyler.  “  Good  citi¬ 
zens  and  pious  all !”  he  exclaimed,  when  the  reb¬ 
els  were  preparing  to  take  vengeance  for  that 
deed,  “give  help  without  delay  to  your  afflicted 
King ;  give  help  to  me,  your  Mayor,  encompassed 
by  the  self-same  dangers.  If  you  do  not  choose 
to  succor  me,  at  any  rate  beware  how  you  sacrifice 
your  King !”  The  answer  came  in  prompt  and 
energetic  combination  of  the  citizens,  by  which  the 
rebellion  was  suppressed. 

A  worthier  merchant  of  that  time,  “  a  man  of 
jolly  wit  and  very  rich  in  substance,”  according 
to  the  quaint  old  chronicler,  was  John  Philpot,  of 
the  Grocers’  Guild,  who  lived  on  the  site  of  Phil¬ 
pot  Lane.  He  did  many  famous  things  for  the 
relief  of  his  country,  chief  of  all  perhaps  being  his 
punishment  of  John  Mercer,  a  Scotch  merchant 
and  pirate  in  1378,  the  year  in  which  Philpot  was 
Mayor  of  London.  Mercer’s  father  had  also  been 


John  Philpot  the  Grocer. 


27 


a  pirate.  Being  caught,  and  imprisoned  in  Scar¬ 
borough  Castle,  in  1377,  his  son  carried  on  the 
strife  with  yet  more  boldness.  Collecting  a  little 
fleet  of  Scotch,  French,  and  Spanish  ships  in  1378, 
he  captured  several  English  merchantmen  off 
Scarborough,  slaying  their  commanders,  putting 
their  crews  in  chains,  and  appropriating  or  destroy¬ 
ing  their  cargoes.  This  mischief,  thought  Lord 
Mayor  Philpot,  must  be  stopped,  and  stopped  at 
once.  Therefore,  at  his  own  expense,  he  prompt¬ 
ly  collected  a  number  of  vessels,  put  in  them  a 
thousand  armed  men,  and  sailed  for  the  north. 
Within  a  few  weeks  he  had  retaken  the  captured 
vessels,  had  effectually  beaten  their  impudent  cap- 
tors,  and,  as  a  revenge,  had  seized  fifteen  Spanish 
vessels,  full  of  wine,  that  came  in  his  way.  On 
his  return  from  this  notable  exploit,  we  are  told  by 
the  old  historian,  “there  was  great  joy  made 
among  the  people,  all  men  praising  the  worthy 
man’s  bountifulness  and  love  toward  the  king.” 
But  the  peers  of  England  by  no  means  echoed  the 
praises  of  the  commoners.  “First  they  lay  in 
wait  to  do  him  some  displeasure,  and  afterward 
they  spake  against  him  openly,  saying  that  it  was 
not  lawful  for  him  to  do  such  things  without  the 
orders  of  the  king  and  his  realm.”  Philpot  was 
accordingly  summoned  before  Richard  II.’s  coun¬ 
cil,  and  accused  of  illegal  conduct  in  going  out  to 
fight  the  enemy  without  authority  from  the  Crown. 
Philpot  was  angry  with  good  reason.  “Know, 
sir,”  he  said  to  the  Earl  of  Stafford,  who  was  loud- 


boston  college  library 

CHESTNUT  HILL,  MASS. 


28 


His  Pat?'iotic  Conduct . 


est  in  his  reproaches,  “  that  I  did  not  expose  my¬ 
self,  my  money,  and  my  men,  to  the  dangers  of  the 
sea,  that  I  might  deprive  you  and  your  mates  of 
your  knightly  fame,  or  that  I  might  win  any  for 
myself ;  but  in  pity  for  the  misery  of  the  people 
and  the  country,  which,  from  being  a  noble  realm, 
with  dominion  over  other  nations,  has,  through 
your  slothfulness,  become  exposed  to  the  ravages 
of  the  vilest  race.  Not  one  of  you  would  lift  a 
hand  in  her  defense.  Therefore  it  was  that  I 
gave  up  myself  and  my  property  for  the  safety 
and  deliverance  of  England.”  His  rivals  at  Court 
could  find  no  real  complaint  against  him ;  and 
his  friends  among  the  people  praised  him  as  one 
of  their  greatest  benefactors. 

Philpot  died  in  1384,  and  Walworth  at  about 
the  same  time.  Whittington,  then  nearly  thirty 
years  old,  was  their  successor,  and  surpassed  them 
as  a  type  of  the  merchants  of  England  during  the 
Middle  Ages  at  their  best. 

Of  his  early  occupations  as  a  mercer  and  a  cit¬ 
izen  of  London  we  know  nothing  in  detail :  but 
we  can  guess  something  of  them  from  the  illustra¬ 
tions  that  have  been  given  of  the  state  of  the  times 
in  which  he  was  schooled.  They  were  times  in 
which,  Richard  II.  being  king,  England  was  given 
up  to  jealousies  and  quarrels,  rebellion  and  tyran¬ 
ny.  Richard  was  not  wise  enough  or  strong 
enough  to  keep  his  realm  in  order.  In  trying  to 
do  so,  he  only  made  mischief.  Nobles  were  at 
feud  with  nobles,  only  leagued  together  for  frequent 


Whittington's  Merchant  Life .  29 

opposition  to  him,  and  for  constant  resistance  of 
the  attempts  made  by  the  common  people  to  rise 
out  of  the  degradation  in  which  they  had  long  been 
kept,  and  violently  to  seize  a  share  in  the  govern¬ 
ment  of  the  country.  The  merchants  of  London 
did  their  best  to  keep  out  of  the  strife ;  but  they 
were  often  forced  to  become  soldiers,  as  when 
Walworth  led  the  citizens  against  Wat  Tyler ;  and 
sailors,  as  when  Philpot  went  out  to  punish  John 
Mercer  and  the  Scottish  pirates.  Whittington,  a 
young  and  enterprising  man,  must  have  watched 
the  turmoil  with  close  interest,  keeping  out  of  it 
as  much  as  possible,  and  doing  his  utmost,  with 
wonderful  success,  to  become  a  rich  and  influen¬ 
tial  trader. 

We  first  hear  of  him  in  1393,  when  he  must  have 
been  nearly  forty  years  old.  He  was  then  a  mas¬ 
ter-mercer,  and  a  member  of  the  Mercers’  Guild, 
with  five  apprentices  working  under  him  ;  and  be¬ 
fore  the  year  was  out  he  was  elected  Sheriff  of  Lon¬ 
don,  having  previously  been  made  an  alderman. 

As  an  Alderman  he  had  just  taken  part  in  a 
curious  ceremony.  Richard  II.  had  called  upon 
the  city  for  a  loan  of  ^1000.  The  city  had  re¬ 
fused,  and  the  mayor  and  other  chief  officers  had 
accordingly  been  deposed  and  sent  to  prison,  the 
management  of  affairs  being  placed  in  the  hands 
of  a  “  guardian,”  appointed,  in  violation  of  all  civic 
laws  and  privileges,  by  the  King  himself.  The  ef¬ 
fect  of  this  severity  was,  that  after  a  few  months 
the  citizens  had  consented  to  buy  back  their  rights 


30  A  Quarrel  and  its  Ending. 

for  ,£10,000,  ten  times  the  sum  which  they  had  for¬ 
merly  declined  to  pay.  Thereupon  there  was  a  great 
show  of  peace-making.  On  the  29th  of  August, 
King  Richard  proceeded  from  his  palace  at  Shene 
or-  Mortlake,  into  the  city,  there  to  be  entertained 
with  a  famous  pageant.  Rich  tapestry,  choice 
silks,  and  cloths  of  gold  adorned  the  streets,  gar¬ 
lands  and  festoons  of  sweet-smelling  flowers  being 
freely  mingled  with  them.  All  the  members  of 
the  city  guilds  and  all  their  apprentices,  matrons, 
maids,  and  children,  thronged  the  narrow  streets 
almost  from  daybreak,  while  a  thousand  and  twen¬ 
ty  young  men  on  horseback  marched  up  and  down, 
keeping  order,  and  adding  to  the  pomp  of  the  oc¬ 
casion.  In  the  afternoon  a  procession  was  form¬ 
ed.  The  “  guardian  ”  appointed  by  the  King  led 
the  way.  After  him  came  the  four-and-twenty  al¬ 
dermen,  Whittington  being  one  of  them,  all  array¬ 
ed  in  red  and  white,  and  they  were  followed  by  the 
•leading  representatives  of  the  various  trades,  each 
in  its  own  livery.  “  None  seeing  this  company,” 
says  the  delighted  chronicler, “  could  doubt  that  he 
looked  upon  a  troop  of  angels.”  Vhe  procession 
passed  over  London  Bridge,  and  met  another  pro¬ 
cession  consisting  of  King  Richard  and  Queen  Anne, 
and  a  host  of  attendant  courtiers.  Then  all  turn¬ 
ed  back,  crossed  London  Bridge,  and  traversed  the 
city,  to  be  delighted  with  fresh  sights  and  wonders 
at  every  turn.  In  Cheapside  there  were  fountains 
pouring  forth  wine,  and  allegorical  appearances  of 
sweet  youths  with  crowns.  At  the  doorway  of  Saint 


Whittington's  Occupations.  31 

Paul’s  Cathedral  there  was  heavenly  music.  From 
the  summit  of  old  Ludgate,  angels  strewed  flowers 
and  perfumes  on  the  royal  party  ;  and  at  Temple- 
Bar  there  was  a  wonderful  representation  of  a  for¬ 
est,  and  a  desert  full  of  wild  beasts,  with  John  the 
Baptist  in  the  midst  of  them,  leading  the  Lamb  of 
God.  These  entertainments  having  been  admired* 
the  whole  procession  hurried  on  to  Westminster, 
where  the  King  seated  himself  on  his  throne,  and 
formally  pardoned  the  citizens  of  London  for  their 
naughtiness  in  not  lending  him  money  as  soon  as 
it  was  asked  for.  At  the  same  time  he  gave  them 
back  the  privileges  that  had  been  taken  from  them. 

It  was  in  consequence  of  that  restitution  of  priv¬ 
ileges,  and  just  three  weeks  after  the  ceremony, 
that  Whittington  was  chosen  Sheriff.  Five  years 
afterward,  in  1398,  he  was  appointed  Mayor,  and  he 
held  that  office  for  a  second  time  in  1406,  and  for 
a  third  time  in  1419.  In  1416,  also,  he  was  elected 
a  member  of  Parliament  for  the  city  of  London. 

All  through  these  years  Whittington  was  a  busy 
merchant.  Besides  all  the  minor  trade  that  was 
proper  to  the  mercer’s  calling,  he  dealt  extensively 
with  foreign  merchants  in  the  raw  wool  and  hides 
which  were  then  the  chief  articles  exported  from 
England,  and  in  the  silks  and  other  costly  articles 
from  distant  lands,  that  were  exchanged  for  native 
wool  and  leather.  Much  of  his  wealth  also  was 
derived  from  an  irregular  sort  of  banking,  which 
brought  him  into  close  connection  with  the  two 
famous  monarchs,  Henry  IV.  and  Plenry  V.,  who 


32  A  Costly  Piece  of  Loyalty. 

reigned  in  England  after  the  overthrow  of  Richard 
II.  By  lending  money  to  them  and  others,  and 
arranging  all  their  complicated  business  in  money 
matters,  he  became,  in  the  course  of  his  long  life, 
very  rich. 

He  was  as  magnanimous  as  he  was  rich,  al¬ 
though  some  of  the  stories  illustrating  his  magnan¬ 
imity  can  hardly  be  believed.  One  of  these  stories 
tells  how,  on  the  occasion  of  his  being  knighted,  ap¬ 
parently  in  1419,  he  invited  Henry  IV.  and  his 
queen  to  a  sumptuous  entertainment  at  Guildhall. 
Among  the  rarities  prepared  to  give  splendor  to 
the  festival  was  a  marvellous  fire  of  sweet-smelling 
woods,  mixed  with  cinnamon  and  other  costly 
spices.  While  the  king  was  praising  this  novel¬ 
ty,  we  are  told  Whittington  went  to  a  closet,  and 
took  from  it  bonds  to  the  value  of  .£60,000 — worth 
nearly  a  million  pounds  of  modern  money — which 
he  had  diligently  bought  up  from  the  various  mer¬ 
chants  and  money-lenders  to  whom  they  had  at 
various  times  been  given  by  Henry.  This  bundle 
he  showed  to  the  King,  and  then  threw  into  the 
fire.  “  Never  had  prince  such  a  subject !”  ex¬ 
claimed  Henry  :  “  And  never  had  subject  such  a 
prince !”  answered  Whittington. 

That  story  may  or  may  not  be  true  ;  but  of  oth¬ 
er  and  nobler  acts  of  liberality  done  by  Whitting¬ 
ton  we  have  ample  proof.  “  The  fervent  desire 
and  busy  intention  of  a  prudent,  wise,  and  devout 
man,”  he  is  reported  to  have  said  not  long  before 
his  death,  “  shall  be  to  cast  before  and  make  sure 


Whittington's  Charities. 


33 


the  state  and  the  end  of  this  short  life  with  deeds 
of  mercy  and  pity,  and  especially  to  provide  for 
those  miserable  persons  whom  the  penury  of  this 
world  insulteth,  and  to  whom  the  power  of  seeking 
the  necessities  of  life  by  art  or  bodily  labor  is  in¬ 
terdicted.”  And  that  was  certainly  the  rule  of  his 
own  life. 

Four  hundred  years  before  John  Howard  ap¬ 
peared  as  the  prisoner’s  friend,  Whittington  began 
to  rebuild  Newgate  prison,  hitherto  “  a  most  ugly 
and  loathsome  prison,  so  contagious  of  air,  that  it 
caused  the  death  of  many  men  ;”  and  dying  before 
the  work  was  done,  he  left  money  that  it  might  be 
duly  completed. 

Saint  Bartholemew’s  Hospital,  in  Smithfield, 
founded  in  1102  for  the  help  of  sick  and  lame  pau¬ 
pers,  and  long  fallen  into  decay,  was  repaired  soon 
after  his  death,  in  obedience  to  the  instructions  of 
this  “  worthy  and  notable  merchant,  the  which,” 
according  to  the  testimony  of  his  executors,  “  had 
right  liberal  and  large  hands  to  the  needy  and 
poor  people.” 

As  a  small  but  significant  illustration  of  his 
large-hearted  charity,  we  are  told  that  “  there  was 
a  water  conduit  east  of  the  church  of  Saint  Giles, 
Cripplegate,  which  came  from  Highbury,  and  that 
Whittington,  the  mayor,  caused  a  tap  of  water  to 
be  made  in  the  church  wall,”  —  a  forerunner,  by 
nearly  five  centuries,  of  the  modern  drinking  foun¬ 
tains. 

A  long  list  might  be  made  of  all  Whittington’s 

G 


34 


Whittington ’s  Charities. 


acts  of  charity.  In  1400  he  obtained  leave  to  re¬ 
build  the  church  of  Saint  Michael  Paternoster,  and 
found  there  a  college,  “  consisting  of  four  fellows, 
clerks,  conducts,  and  choristers,  who  were  govern- 


G  midhall  Chapel,  London. 


ed  by  a  master,”  an  institution  out  of  which  grew 
not  only  the  reorganized  Whittington  College  in  the 
City,  but  also  the  Whittington  almshoUse  at  High- 
gate.  In  his  will  he  provided  for  the  paving  and 


( 


Christ's  Hospital. 


37 


glazing  of  Guildhall,  which  was  built  in  his  lifetime. 
These  were  luxuries  at  that  time  almost  confined 
to  palaces.  To  the  famous  building  he  also  added 
the  beautiful  chapel  which  was  pulled  down  in 
1822.  The  Guildhall  Library,  too,  was  built  by 
his  directions  in  1419. 

During  the  last  years  of  his  life  Sir  Richard 
Whittington  was  busy  about  the  foundation  of  the 
library  of  the  Gray  Friars’  monastery,  in  Newgate 
Street.  It  was  a  building  129  feet  long  and  31 
feet  wide,  furnished,  at  starting,  with  books  worth 
^556  1  os.  (more  than  £ 6000  in  the  present  value 
of  money),  of  which  ^400  was  subscribed  by  Whit¬ 
tington.  In  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  the  mon¬ 
astery  and  its  library  were  given  to  the  City  of 
London  at  the  request  of  Sir  Richard  Gresham,  a 
great  merchant,  who  was  father  of  a  greater  mer¬ 
chant,  Sir  Thomas  Gresham  ;  and  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  VI.,  through  the  influence  of  Sir  Richard 
Dobbs,  another  worthy  merchant,  and  Lord  May¬ 
or,  they  were  converted  into  the  excellent  Christ’s 
Hospital,  “where  poor  children,  innocent  and  fa¬ 
therless,  are  trained  up  to  the  knowledge  of  God  and 
virtuous  exercises,  to  the  overthrow  of  beggary.” 

For  some  years  before  his  death,  the  good  Sir 
Richard  Whittington  appears  to. have  lived  in  a 
large  house  which  he  built  for  himself  in  Crutched 
Friars,  which  was  pulled  down  not  very  long  ago. 
He  worked  hard  in  all  good  ways  to  the  last.  In 
September  and  October,  1422,  he  was  in  attend¬ 
ance  at  Guildhall,  helping  to  elect  the  mayor  and 


38  Whittington's  Death  and  Burial. 

sheriffs  for  the  following  year;  but  in  the  winter 
he  sickened,  never  to  recover.  He  died  on  the 
24th  of  March,  1423,  not  far  short  of  seventy  years 
old.  “  His  body,”  says  Stow  the  chronicler,  “  was 
three  times  buried  in  his  own  church  of  Saint  Mich¬ 
ael  Paternoster — first  by  his  executors,  under  a  fair 
monument ;  then,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  the 
parson  of  the  church,  thinking  some  great  riches,  as 
he  said,  to  be  buried  with  him,  caused  his  monument 
to  be  broken,  his  body  to  be  spoilt  of  its  leaden 
sheet  and  again  the  second  time  to  be  buried  ;  and, 
in  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary,  the  parishioners  were 
forced  to  take  him  up,  clap  him  in  lead  as  before, 
to  bury  him  the  third  time,  and  to  place  his  monu¬ 
ment,  or  the  like,  over  him  again.” 

But  both  church  and  tombstone  were  destroy¬ 
ed  by  the  great  fire  of  1 666  ;  and  now  Sir  Richard 
Whittington’s  only  monument  is  to  be  found'in  the 
records  of  the  city  which  he  so  greatly  helped  by 
his  noble  charities,  and  by  his  perfect  showing  of 
the  way  in  which  a  merchant  prince  should  live. 


SIR  THOMAS  GRESHAM. 


Sir  Thomas  Gresham. 


4i 


II. 

SIR  THOMAS  GRESHAM. 

4I519-I579)- 

gIR  RICHARD  WHITTINGTON  had  been 
dead  ninety-six  years  when  Sir  Thomas  Gres¬ 
ham  was  born.  London  had  many  famous  mer¬ 
chants  during  the  four  generations  that  separated 
these  two  men ;  but  Whittington  had,  in  all  re¬ 
spects,  no  successor  as  notable  as  himself  until 
Gresham  came  to  surpass  him,  + 

Perhaps  the  most  eminent  London  merchant 
in  the  interval  was  Sir  Thomas  Gresham’s  father, 
Sir  Richard  Gresham.  He  was  the  son  of  a 
wealthy  gentleman  of  Norfolk,  who,  early  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  established  his  four  sons  as 
mercers  in  London.  One  of  the  sons  afterward 
became  a  clergyman  ;  the  other  three  carried  on 
an  extensive  business  in  partnership.  Sir  Rich¬ 
ard,  though  not  the  oldest,  was  the  most  prosper¬ 
ous.  He  not  only  made  much  money  as  a  mer¬ 
chant,  but  also  acted  as  a  sort  of  banker  to  Hen¬ 
ry  VIII.  and  Edward  VI.  He  was  a  great  friend 
of  Cardinal  Wolsey’s,  continuing  his  friend  even 
after  his  disgrace.  To  Wolsey  he  lent  £200, 
equal  to  nearly  ,£2000  according  to  the  present 
value  of  money,  shortly  before  his  death.  “  I  bor¬ 
rowed  it,”  said  Wolsey,  “  to  bury  me  and  bestow 
among  my  servants.” 


42 


Sir  Richard  Gresham. 


Many  other  proofs  of  Sir  Richard  Gresham’s 
goodness  are  on  record,  chief  of  all  being  his  zeal 
in  inducing  Henry  VIII.,  at  the  great  division  of 
church  property  in  1557,  to  allow  three  old  mon¬ 
asteries,  St.  Mary’s,  Saint  Bartholomew’s,  and 
Saint  Thomas’s,  to  be  handed  over  to  the  City  of 
London  and  converted  into  hospitals  “  for  the  aid 
and  comfort  of  the  poor,  sick,  blind,  aged,  and  im¬ 
potent  persons,  being  not  able  to  help  themselves, 
nor  having  no  place  certain  where  they  may  be 
refreshed  or  lodged  at,  till  they  be  holpen  and 
cured  of  their  diseases.” 

Eighteen  years  before  that,  in  1519,  his  son 
Thomas  was  born.  Of  Thomas’s  early  life  we 
are  not  told  much.  At  the  age  of  thirteen  he 
went  to  Cambridge  for  three  years,  and  in  1535  he 
was  put  to  learn  the  intricacies  of  London  com¬ 
merce  as  it  was  practiced  by  the  Mercers’  Com¬ 
pany.  “To  that  science,”  he  said  in  a  letjter 
written  some  time  after,  “  I  was  bound  ’prentice 
eight  years,  to  come  by  the  experience  and  knowl¬ 
edge  that  I  have.  I  need  not  have  been  ’prentice, 
for  that  I  was  free  by  my  father’s  copy ;  albeit, 
my  father,  being  a  wise  man,  knew  it  was  to  no 
purpose  except  I  were  bound  ’prentice  to  the 
same,  whereby  to  come  by  the  experience  and 
knowledge  of  all  kinds  of  merchandise.” 

The  Mercers’  Guild,  of  which  young  Gresham 
was  thus  wisely  qualified  to  be  a  working  member, 
was  still,  as  it  had  been  in  the  days  of  Whitting¬ 
ton,  the  chief  school  for  London  merchants.  But 


Mercers’  Hali,  CheapsiJe,  London. 


A  Romance  of  Commerce.  45 

it  was  no  longer  the  great  representative  of  Lon¬ 
don  commerce.  Already  the  old  guilds  had  done 
their  best  work,  and,  as  guilds,  were  beginning  to 
mg.ke  feasts  and  shows  their  principal  business. 
Their  more  active  members  used  them  chiefly  as 
a  means  of  introduction  to  the  Company  of  Mer¬ 
chant  Adventurers,  which  took  the  lead  in  Gresh¬ 
am’s  time,  as  the  Society  of  the  Merchants  of 
the  Staple  had  done  in  Whittington’s. 

The  Merchant  Adventurers  traced  their  origin 
to  a  period  long  before  Whittington.  The  found¬ 
er  of  their  company  is  said  to  have  been  Thomas 
a  Becket’s  father,  Gilbert  a  Becket,  who,  in  the 
time  of  the  Crusades,  went  to  the  far  East  for 
purposes  of  trade,  while  most  of  his  adventurous 
countrymen  were  devoting  themselves  to  chival¬ 
rous  fighting  against  the  Saracen  enemies  of  the 
Cross.  Gilbert  a  Becket,  as  the  doubtful  story 
runs,  was  taken  prisoner  in  Syria  by  a  cruel  Pay- 
nim.  But,  if  the  Paynim  was  cruel,  his  pretty 
daughter  was  kind.  Falling  in  love  with  the  En¬ 
glish  merchant,  she  contrived  his  escape,  and, 
when  he  had  safely  returned  to  England,  managed 
to  run  after  him.  Knowing  only  two  English 
words,  “  London  ”  and  “  Gilbert,”  the  bold  dam¬ 
sel  made  her  way  from  Syria  to  England,  and,  aft¬ 
er  much  wandering  about,  found  her  lover  in 
front  of  his  shop  in  Cheapside  ;  to  be  rewarded, 
let  us  hope,  for  all  her  boldness  and  devotion. 

That  tale  can  hardly  be  true ;  but  it  is  true 
that  Gilbert  a  Becket  was  an  enterprising  mer- 


46 


The  Merchant  Adventurers. 


chant  in  the  time  of  Henry  II.,  and  the  trading 
company,  said  to  have  been  founded  either  by  him 
or  by  others  in  furtherance  of  his  commercial  proj¬ 
ects,  was  incorporated  by  Henry  IV.,  perhaps 
with  assistance  from  Whittington,  who  was  then 
at  the  height  of  his  greatness,  as  the  Brotherhood 
of  Saint  Thomas  a  Becket.  Soon  after  that  time 
it  became  a  powerful  and  very  prosperous  society. 
By  its  means  English  merchants  were  then  able  to 
do  in  a  body  what  the  jealousy  of  kings  and  states¬ 
men  made  it  impossible  for  them  to  do  singly. 
They  established  a  regular  colony  in  Antwerp, 
which  was  then  the  chief  trading  town  on  the 
Continent,  and  which  gained  much  by  the  fresh 
trade  that  they  brought  to  it.  “To  England,” 
said  an  Italian  resident  in  the  Netherlands  in  the 
time  of  Sir  Thomas  Gresham,  “  Antwerp  sends 
jewels  and  precious  stones,  silver,  quicksilver, 
silks,  spices,  sugar,  cotton,  linens,  serges,  drugs, 
hops,  glass,  salt  fish,  and  other  merceries  of  all 
sorts,  to  a  great  value.  From  England,  Antwerp 
receives  vast  quantities  of  fine  and  coarse  draper¬ 
ies,  fringes,  and  other  things  of  that  kind,  the  finest 
wool,  sheep  *and  rabbit  skins  without  number,  a 
great  quantity  of  lead  and  tin,  beer,  cheese,  Malm¬ 
sey  wines,  and  other  sorts  of  provisions,  in  great 
abundance.  This  is  of  immense  benefit  to  both 
countries,  neither  of  which  could,  without  the  great¬ 
est  damage,  dispense  with  this  their  vast  mutual 
commerce.” 

The  English  half  of  this  famous  trade  was 


Gresham  in  Antwerp. 


47 


managed  by  the  Company  of  Merchant  Adventur¬ 
ers  ;  and  that  he  might  take  his  share  in  it,  as  his 
father  was  then  doing,  young  Thomas  Gresham 
was  sent  to  Antwerp  in  1543,  when  he  was  twen¬ 
ty-four  years  old,  and  as  soon  as  his  apprentice- 


A  Flemish  Merchant  of  the  16th  Century. 

ship  to  the  Mercers’  Guild  \yas  over.  Antwerp 
was  his  usual  home  for  four-and-twenty  other 
years. 

The  chief  English  merchant  resident  in  Ant¬ 
werp,  a  sort  of  governor  or  controller  of  the  whole 
colony,  was  known  as  the  King’s  Factor,  that  title 
being  given  to  him  because,  besides  his  work  in 


48  '  The  King's  Factor  in  Antwerp. 

presiding  over  the  whole  body,  his  special  business 
was  to  negotiate  any  loans  with  wealthy  merchants 
and  money-lenders  that  might  be  needed  by  the 
English  sovereign,  and  to  keep  the  sovereign  in¬ 
formed  as  to  all  the  important  foreign  matters 
known  to  him.  He  was  not  only  a  sort  of  govern¬ 
or  and  consul,  but  a  sort  of  ambassador  and  for¬ 
eign  secretary  as  well.  This  was,  in  fact,  the  most 
influential  employment,  out  of  England,  under  the 
English  crown.  When  young  Gresham  went  to 
Antwerp  to  look  after  his  father’s  business  and  to 
begin  business  on  his  own  account,  a  Stephen 
Vaughan  was  in  office.  In  1546  he  was  succeeded 
by  Sir  William  Dansell,  a  good-natured  man,  but 
not  much  of  a  merchant,  and  no  financier  at  all. 
In  1549  he  was  reproved  for  a  grievous  piece 
of  carelessness,  by  which,  it  was  said,  ,£40,000 
was  lost  to  Edward  VI.  He  answered  that  he 
had  done  his  very  best,  that  he  could  not  have 
done  better  if  he  had  spent  forty  thousand  lives 
on  the  business,  and  that  what  he  had  done  was 
with  the  assistance  of  “  one  Thomas  Gresham.” 
But  the  members  of  Edward  VI. ’s  Council  were 
not  satisfied.  When  Dansell  wrote  to  say,  “It 
seemeth  me  that  you  suppose  me  a  very  blunt 
beast,  without  reason  and  discretion,”  they  did  not 
deny  the  charge.  They  thought,  and  thought 
wisely,  that  “  one  Thomas  Gresham  ”  would  act 
better  as  principal  than  as  assistant.  According¬ 
ly,  in  or  near  December,  1551,  he  was  appointed 
King’s  Factor;  and,  personally,  or  by  deputy,  he 


Gresham  as  King’s  Factor .  49 

held  the  office,  with  a  gap  of  about  three  years 
during  Queen  Mary’s  reign,  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen¬ 
tury. 

The  long  history  of  his  services  in  this  capaci¬ 
ty  need  not  here  be  detailed.  Though  all  the 


An  English  Merchant  of  the  16th  Century. 

while  he  was  working  zealously  and  very  profita¬ 
bly  as  a  merchant  on  his  own  account,  his  official 
work  was  not  strictly  that  of  a  merchant.  A  great 
part  of  his  duty  was  in  borrowing  money  for  the 
three  sovereigns  who  employed  him — Edward  VI., 
Mary,  and  Elizabeth — and  in  paying,  or  trying  to 
pay,  their  debts.  This  he  did  very  cleverly,  and 

D 


50  Ills  Services  to  Edward  VI. 

with  great  advantage  to  his  sovereigns  and  his 
country.  “  When  I  took  this  service  in  hand,”  he 
wrote,  shortly  after  the  death  of  Edward  VI.  in 
1 55 3,  “the  King’s  majesty’s  credit  in  Flanders 
was  small ;  and  yet  afore  his  death  he  was  in  such 
credit  with  strangers  and  his  own  merchants  that 
he  might  have  had  what  sum  of  money  he  desired. 
Whereby  his  enemies  began  to  fear  him ;  for  the 
commodities  of  his  realm  were  not  known  before.  • 
And  for  the  accomplishment  thereof  I  not  only 
left  the  realm,  with  my  wife  and  family,  my  occu¬ 
pying  and  whole  trade  of  living,  by  the  space  of 
two  years  ;  but  also  posted  in  that  time  forty  times 
at  the  least,  upon 'the  King’s  sending,  from  Ant¬ 
werp  to  the  Court.” 

Gresham  conferred  small  as  well  as  large  fa¬ 
vors  upon  Edward  VI.  For  a  New-year’s  gift  in 
1 5 53,  he  sent  him  a  pair  of  long  Spanish  silk  stock¬ 
ings,  “  a  great  present,  ”  says  the  old  chronicler, 

“  for  you  shall  understand  that  King  Henry  VIII. 
did  wear  only  cloth  hose,  or  hose  cut  out  of  ell- 
broad  taffeta,  unless  by  great  chance  there  came 
a  pair  of  Spanish  stockings  out  of  Spain.” 

Edward  VI.  was  not  ungrateful  for  either  the 
great  or  the  little  kindnesses.  Three  weeks  be¬ 
fore  his  death,  having  at  previous  times  bestowed 
upon  him  property  worth  three  times  as  much,  he 
gave  to  Gresham  lands  worth  ^iooa  year,  saying, 
as  he  handed  the  charter,  “  You  shall  know  that 
you  have  served  a  king  !  ” 

Besides  a  king,  Gresham  served  two  queens  right 


* 


Gresham's  Work  wider  Elizabeth. 


5i 


nobly.  His  service  to  Queen  Mary  was  not  so 
great  as  it  might  be,  because  his  dislike  of  her  Rom¬ 
ish  ways,  and  those  of  her  husband,  Philip  of  Spain, 
put  him  out  of  their  favor,  and  also  made  it  im¬ 
possible  for  him  to  do  heartily  much  that  they  re¬ 
quired  of  him.  But  better  fortune  came  to  him 
with  the  accession  of  Queen  Elizabeth  in  1558. 
Hearing  of  the  change  of  sovereigns,  he  hurried 
from  Antwerp  to  England  to  render  homage,  and 
he  was  very  graciously  received.  “  Her  Highness 
promised  me,  by  the  faith  of  a  queen,  ”  he  said,  in 
a  letter  describing  the  interview,  “  that  she  would 
not  only  ‘  keep  one  ear  shut  to  hear  me,  ’  but  also, 
if  I  did  her  none  other  service  than  I  had  done  to 


her  late  brother  and  her  late  sister,  she  would  give 
me  as  much  land  as  ever  they  both  did ;  which 
two  promises  made  me  a  young  man  again,  and 
caused  me  to  enter  on  my  great  charge  again  with 
heart  and  courage.  And  thereupon  her  Majesty 
gave  me  her  hand  to  kiss,  and  I  accepted  this  great 
charge.” 

He  worthily  fulfilled  it.  During  the  first  three 
and  a  half  years  of  Queen  Elizabeth’s  reign,  as  ap¬ 
pears  by  a  bill  which  he  drew  up,  he  spent  £1627 
9^.  in  “  riding  and  posting  charges  ”  on  her  Majes¬ 
ty’s  service — which  amount,  like  all  others  of  this 
date,  we  must  multiply  by  nine  or  ten  to  get  the 
approximate  value  in  the  currency  of  to-day.  Once, 
in  1561,  he  rode  so  fast  that  he  fell  from  his  horse 
and  broke  his  leg,  whereby  he  was  lamed  for  the 
rest  of  his  life.  He  had  hard  work  to  do  in  trav- 


52 


His  Various  Employments. 


elling  from  place  to  place,  borrowing  money  from 
one  merchant,  paying  the  debts  due  to  another, 
and  conciliating  all  by  feasting  them  after  the  fash¬ 
ion  for  which  Antwerp  was  famous  during  many 
centuries.  And  he  was  not  busy  simply  with 
money  matters ;  he  was  often  employed  on  po¬ 
litical  errands,  watching  the  movements  of  the 
Queen’s  enemies,  negotiating  with  her  friends, 
and  in  all  sorts  of  ways  promoting  her  interests. 

Thus  he  was  not  always  resident  in  Antwerp. 
From  the  commencement  of  Elizabeth’s  reign, 
indeed,  he  was  never  there  for  long  at  a  time. 
His  own  business,  and  the  local  duties  attached 
to  his  office  as  Queen’s  Factor,  were  performed  by 
a  clever  agent  named  Richard  Clough,  an  honest 
Welshman,  in  whom  the  prompt  and  expeditious 
merchant  found  only  one  fault.  “  My  servant,” 
he  said,  “  is  very  long  and  tedious  in  his  writing.” 
Other  trusty  clerks  he  had  in  London,  at  Seville, 
at  Toledo,  at  Dunkirk,  and  elsewhere.  Antwerp, 
however,  after  London,  was  his  head-quarters  up 
to  the  year  1567. 

In  that  year  his  sendees  as  Queen  Elizabeth’s 
factor  at  Antwerp  came  to  an  end.  For  some 
time  previous,  war  had  been  waging  between  the 
Protestant  States  of  the  Netherlands  and  Philip, 
the  Catholic  King  of  Spain.  In  1567  the  Span¬ 
iards  took  possession  of  Antwerp,  driving  out  not 
only  the  English  merchants,  with  Gresham  at  their 
head,  but  also  a  great  number  of  Flemish  traders, 
many  of  whom  settled  in  England,  adding  much, 


Gresham  as  a  London  Merchant. 


53 

by  their  industry  and  honesty,  to  the  wealth  of 
their  adopted  country. 

Henceforth  Gresham  was  much  more  strictly 
a  London  merchant.  For  some  time  to  come  he 
seems  to  have  been  settled  down  in  his  banker’s 
and  mercer’s  shop  in  Lombard  Street,  where  every 
kind  of  merchandise  was  traded  in,  and  where,  aft¬ 
er  the  fashion  of  all  great  merchants  of  those  times 
he  also  carried  on  a  thriving  business  as  pawnbro¬ 
ker  and  money-lender.  It  was  still  the  custom,  as 
it  had  been  in  Whittington’s  days,  for  princes  and 
nobles  —  banks  proper,  railways,  national  funds, 
and  other  modern  means  for  investing  money  not 
yet  being  introduced — to  lodge  their  surplus  mon¬ 
ey  with  the  great  tradesmen,  who  used  it  with  such 
advantage  that  they  were  able  to  pay  good  interest 
to  the  traders,  besides  making  large  profits  for  them¬ 
selves.  Others,  who  needed  more  ready  cash  than 
they  had  at  command,  used  to  bring  their  jewels 
and  treasures,  even  their  title-deeds  and  rent-rolls, 
to  the  same  tradesmen,  who  lent  money  upon 
them,  just  as  pawnbrokers  now  do. 

Of  that  sort,  and  of  all  other  sorts,  was  the  bus¬ 
iness  carried  on  by  Sir  Thomas  Gresham  in  his 
Lombard  Street  shop,  with  its  branches  and  agen¬ 
cies  in  various  parts  of  England  and  the  Conti¬ 
nent.  King  of  the  merchants  of  his  time,  he  was 
also,  in  his  quaint,  blunt  way,  a  famous  courtier  in 
the  famous  court  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  where  men 
like  the  great  Earl  of  Leicester,  and  his  worthier 
nephew,  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  contributed  to  the  gay- 


54  LoJidoji  in  Gresha77i,s  Time. 

ety  and  the  renown.  Could  we  look  back  through 
three  centuries,  and  see  London  and  England  as 
they  really  were,  we  should  miss  many  of  the  re¬ 
finements  of  the  modern  civilization  which  the 
commerce  of  men  like  Gresham  did  not  a  little  to 
promote.  But  travellers  of  that  time,  having  none 
of  the  later  refinements  to  compare  them  with, 
were  charmed  with  the  state  of  things  which  they 
saw.  Let  us  listen  to  one  of  them,  a  Dutch  doc¬ 
tor,  who  visited  London  in  the  days  of  Sir  Thom¬ 
as  Gresham  : 

“  Frankly  to  utter  what  I  think,”  he  says,  “  of 
the  incredible  courtesy  and  friendliness  in  speech 
and  affability  used  in  this  famous  realm,  I  must 
confess  it  doth  surmount  and  carry  away  the 
price  of  all  others.  The  neat  cleanliness,  the  ex¬ 
quisite  fineness,  the  pleasant  and  delightful  furni¬ 
ture,  wonderfully  delighted  me.  Their  chambers 
and  parlors,  strewed  over  with  sweet  herbs,  re¬ 
freshed  me.  Rich  nosegays  in  their  bed-cham¬ 
bers,  with  comfortable  smell,  cheered  me  up,  and 
entirely  delighted  all  my  senses.  And  this  do  I 
think  to  be  the  cause  that  Englishmen,  living  by 
such  wholesome  and  exquisite  meat,  and  in  so 
wholesome  and  healthful  air,  be  so  fresh  and  clear- 
colored.  At  their  tables,  although  they  be  very 
sumptuous,  and  love  to  have  good  fare,  yet  neither 
are  they  to  overcharge  themselves  with  excess  of 
drink,  nor  do  they  greatly  provoke  and  urge  oth¬ 
ers  thereto,  but  suffer  every  man  to  drink  in  such 
manner  as  best  pleaseth  himself.” 


London  in  Gresham’s  Tune.  55 

Another  traveller,  a  German,  writing  at  about 
the  same  time,  was  less  complimentary  to  London 
and  its  people.  “  The  inhabitants,”  he  says,  “  are 
magnificently  apparelled,  and  are  extremely  proud 
and  overbearing ;  and  because  the  greater  part, 
especially  the  tradespeople,  seldom  go  into  other 
countries ;  but  always  remain  in  their  houses  in 
the  city,  attending  to  their  business,  they  care  little 
for  foreigners,  but  scoff  and  laugh  at  them ;  and, 
moreover,  one  dare  not  oppose  them,  lest  the 
street-boys  and  apprentices  collect  together  in  im¬ 
mense  crowds,  and  strike  to  right  and  left  unmerci¬ 
fully,  without  regard  to  person  ;  and  because  they 
are  the  strongest,  one  is  obliged  to  put  up  with 
the  insults  as  well  as  the  injury.”  Yet  even  this 
poor  traveller,  who  had  to  run  away  from  the  rude 
’prentices,  but  could  not  run  out  of  hearing  of  their 
chaff,  spoke  well  of  London  as  a  place  of  trade. 
“  London,”  he  said,  “  is  a  large,  excellent,  and 
mighty  city  of  business,  and  the  most  important 
in  the  whole  kingdom.  Most  of  the  inhabitants 
are  employed  in  buying  and  selling  merchan¬ 
dise,  and  trading  to  almost  every  corner  of  the 
world,  since  the  Thames  is  most  useful  and  con¬ 
venient  for  the  purpose,  considering  that  ships 
from  France,  the  Netherlands,  Sweden,  Denmark, 
Hamburg,  and  other  parts,  come  nearly  up  to  the 
city  with  their  goods.  It  is  a  very  populous  city, 
so  that  one  can  scarcely  pass  along  the  streets  on 
account  of  the  throng.” 

A  hundred  years  before  the  great  fire  of  1666, 


56 


The  Royal  Exchange. 


which  did  good  at  any  rate  in  leading  to  the  build¬ 
ing  of  better  roads  and  houses  than  previously  ex¬ 
isted,  the  streets  were  far  narrower  than  nowadays, 
and  the  inhabitants  —  nearly  as  numerous  within 
the  city  walls  as  now,  though  of  course  the  great 
suburbs  of  London  were  still  only  out-of-the-way 
villages — must  have  found  it  hard  to  get  along,  as 
they  went  to  market  in  Cheapside  or  the  neighbor¬ 
hood  of  Leaden  Hall,  or  to  change  their  money 
and  transact  wholesale  business  in  Lombard  Street 
and  the  adjoining  parts. 

Lombard  Street  at  that  time  was  the  central 
haunt  of  the  merchants.  There,  especially  in  the 
open  space  near  Grace  Church,  they  used  to  meet, 
at  all  hours  and  in  all  weathers,  to  transact  their 
business.  “  What  a  place  London  is  !”  exclaimed 
Gresham’s  agent,  Richard  Clough,  writing  to  him 
in  1561  ;  “that  in  so  many  years  they  have  not 
found  the  means  to  make  a  bourse,  but  must  walk 
in  the  rain  when  it  raineth,  more  like  peddlers  than 
merchants.” 

A  bourse  or  exchange,  for  merchants  to  meet  in, 
and  do  their  business  comfortably  in  spite  of  rain  or 
wind,  had  long  before  been  built  in  Antwerp,  and  as 
early  as  1537  Sir  Thomas  Gresham’s  father  had  been 
anxious  to  build  one  in  London.  Others  also  had 
proposed  it ;  but  the  enterprise  was  too  great,  and 
most  of  the  London  merchants  were  too  careless  in 
the  matter, for  any  thing  to  be  done, until  Sir  Thomas 
Gresham  took  the  project  in  hand  ;  and  putting  his 
whole  heart  into  it,  toiled  on  till  it  was  completed. 


The  First  Royal  Exchange,  London 


The  Royal  Exchange. 


59 


This  was  the  great  work  of  his  life,  less  memo¬ 
rable  in  itself  than  other  services  done  by  him  to 
his  country,  but  in  its  effects,  almost  more  helpful 
than  any  thing  else  to  the  progress  of  English  com¬ 
merce.  Contributing  much  money  himself,  he 
persuaded  seven  hundred  and'  fifty  other  citizens 
of  London  to  subscribe  smaller  sums,  and  between 
March  1565  and  October  1566  ^4000  was  collect¬ 
ed.  The  city  of  London  gave  the  land,  which  was 
supposed  to  be  worth  about  ^4000  more,  and  be¬ 
fore  the  -end  of  1566  the  building  \vas  fairly  be¬ 
gun.  The  stone  was  brought  from  one  of  Gresh¬ 
am’s  estates  in  Norfolk  ;  the  wood  from  another 
in  Suffolk;  the  slates,  iron-work,  wainscoting  and 
glass  were  sent  from  Antwerp  by  Richard  Clough  ; 
and  the  quaint,  Dutch-looking  building,  with  am¬ 
ple  walks  and  rooms  for  merchants  on  the  base¬ 
ment,  and  a  hundred  shops  or  booths,  called  the 
Pawn,  above  stairs,  for  retail  dealers,  was  com¬ 
pleted  by  the  summer  of  1569. 

Queen  Elizabeth  christened  it  on  the  23d  of 
January,  1571.  “  The  Queen’s  Majesty,”  says  the 

old  historian,  “  with  her  nobility,  came  from  her 
house  at  the  Strand,  called  Somerset  House,  and 
entered  the  city  by  Temple  Bar,  through  Fleet 
Street,  and,  after  dinner  at  Sir  Thomas  Gresham’s 
in  Bishopsgate  Street,  entered  the  Bourse  on  the 
south  side,  and,  when  she  had  viewed  every  part 
thereof  above  the  ground,  especially  the  Pawn, 
which  was  richly  furnished  with  all  sorts  of  the 
finest  wares  in  the  city,  caused  the  same  Bourse, 


60  A  Compliment  to  Queen  Elizabeth. 

by  a  herald  and  trumpet,  to  be  proclaimed  the 
Royal  Exchange,  and  so  to  be  called  thenceforth, 
and  not  otherwise.” 

The  house  in  Bishopsgate  Street,  at  which  Sir 
Thomas  Gresham  gave  a  dinner  to  Queen  Eliza- 
•  beth  and  her  courtiers,  had  been  built  nearly  ten 
years  before.  It  was  one  of  the  finest  houses  in 
the  city,  inferior  perhaps  to  none  but  the  noble 
Crosby  Hall,  very  near  to  it,  built  by  a  much  older 
merchant  of  London,  Sir  John  Crosby.  In  it 
Gresham  generally  lived  after  leaving  Antwerp,  the 
Lombard  Street  shop  being  used  henceforth  only 
as  a  place  of  business.  He  was  owner  of  several 
other  splendid  mansions,  one  of  them  being  Oster- 
ley  House,  near  Brentford,  There  he  added  to  his 
trading  occupations  by  setting  up  a  paper-mill  (al¬ 
most  the  first  in  England),  oil-mills  and  corn-mills. 
There,  too,  in  1579,  he  entertained  Queen  Eliza¬ 
beth  in  courtly  fashion. 

On  this  occasion  Gresham  is  reported  to  have 
amused  Queen  Elizabeth  with  a  triumph  of  engi¬ 
neering.  “  Her  Majesty,”  says  old  Fuller,  “  found 
fault  with  the  court  of  the  house  as  too  great,  af¬ 
firming  that  it  would  appear  more  handsome  if  di¬ 
vided  with  a  wall  in  the  middle.  What  doth  Sir 
Thomas,  but,  in  the  night-time,  send  for  workmen 
to  London,  who  so  speedily  and  silently  apply  their 
business,  that  the  next  morning  discovered  that 
court  double  which  the  night  had  left  single  before. 
It  is  questionable  whether  the  Queen,  next  day, 
was  more  contented  with  the  conformity  to  her 


Crosby  Hall,  London. — See  page  60. 


♦ 


Gresham's  Death. 


63 


fancy,  or  more  pleased  with  the  surprise  and  sud¬ 
den  performance  thereof ;  while  her  courtiers  dis¬ 
ported  themselves  with  their  several  expressions, 
some  avowing  it  was  no  wonder  he  could  so  soon 
change  a.  building  who  could  build  a  ’Change ; 
others,  reflecting  on  some  known  differences  in  this 
knight’s  family,  affirming  that  any  house  is  easier 
divided  than  united.” 

That  last  joke  was  unkind.  In  1544,  Gresham 
married  a  widow,  Dame  Anne  Read,  aunt,  by  mar¬ 
riage,  of  Sir  Francis  Bacon  ;  and  his  wife  and  he 
do  not  seem  to  have  agreed  very  well  together. 
They  had  an  only  son,  Richard,  who  died  in  1564, 
when  he  was  sixteen  years  old. 

Sir  Thomas  Gresham,  an  active  merchant  to 
the  last,  lived  to  the  age  of  sixty.  “On  Saturday 
the  2 1st  of  November,  1579,”  it  is  written  in  the 
“  Chronicles  of  England,”  “  between  six  and  seven 
o’clock  in  the  evening,  coming  from  the  Exchange 
to  his  house,  which  he  had  sumptuously  builded  in 
Bishopsgate  Street,  he  suddenly  fell  down  in  his 
kitchen,  and,  being  taken  up,  was  found  speechless, 
and  presently  died.”  On  the  25th  of  November 
he  was  buried,  solemnly  and  splendidly,  in  Saint 
Helen’s  Church,  hard  by  ;  a  hundred  poor  men 
and  a  hundred  poor  women  following  him  to  the 
grave. 

His  property,  worth  £2^00  a  year,  passed  to  his 
wife  and  a  son  of  hers  by  another  marriage.  The 
Bishopsgate  Street  house  was  devoted  to  a  chari¬ 
table  ]^roject,  which  seems  to  have  been  very  dear 


64 


Gresham  College. 


to  the  merchant’s  heart  during  the  last  years  of  his 
life.  This  was  the  establishment  of  Gresham  Col¬ 
lege.  He  meant  it  to  be  as. helpful  a  school  for 
London  apprentices  as  the  Universities  of  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  could  be  for  other  students.  But 
those  to  whom  he  entrusted  the  work  used  in  self¬ 
ish  ways  the  large  sum  which  he  left  for  the  pur¬ 
pose,  and  Gresham  College  is  now  only  a  monu¬ 
ment  of  the  good  intentions  of  its  founder. 


Entry  to  the  Metropolis. 


65 


III. 

SIR  EDWARD  OSBORNE. 

CI530-I59I-] 

J^ONDON  BRIDGE,  in  the  olden  time,  was  a 
street,  with  houses,  shops,  and  even  churches 
on  it.  “  It  seems,”  says  a  lively  antiquary,  “  to 
have  been  accounted  rather  a  preferable,  almost  a 
genteel  locality.  It  was  the  grand  entry  to  the 
metropolis,  by  which  passed,  of  necessity,  all  those 
pomps  and  shows,  and  processions  of  state  and  cer¬ 
emony  which  made  so  important  a  part  in  the  life 
of  our  forefathers.  Nowhere  was  there  more  stir 
and  activity  of  every  kind,  and  at  all  hours  ;  and  for 
good  air  and  plenty  of  it,  there  could  have  been  no 
street  comparable  to  the  Bridge  anywhere  else  in 
London.  The  very  sound  of  the  river  beneath  was 
considered  musical  and  soothing  :  it  is  related  that 
those  who  had  been  used  to  it  could  not  easily  fall 
asleep  without  having  it  in  their  ear.  In  front  of 
the  houses  flowed  from  morning  to  night  an  unceas¬ 
ing  current  of  the  busiest  and  most  various  human¬ 
ity  ;  and  the  back  windows  had  another  kind  of 
cheerfulness  of  their  own — a  spacious  and  open 
prospect  over  town,  country,  and  sky,  with  a  full 
share  of  the  sunshine  and  the  breeze.” 

Here  lived  throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  some 
of  the  richest  merchants  of  London,  and  in  Henry 
VIII. ’s  and  Edward  VI. ’s  and  Queen  Mary’s  reigns 

E 


66 


Old  London  Bridge. 


there  were  few  richer  than  Sir  William  Hewit,  a 
leading  member  of  the  Clothworkers’  Guild,  and 
an  enterprising  merchant  in  other  ways.  He  was 
Lord  Mayor  of  London  in  1559,  the  year  of  Queen 


Ancient' Chapel  of  Thomas  a  Becket,  afterward  a  Shop  and  Warehouse, 

on  London  Bridge. 


Elizabeth’s  accession,  and,  dying  in  1567,11c  left,  be¬ 
sides  much  other  property,  an  estate  worth  ^6000 
a  year,  to  be  enjoyed  by  his  only  daughter,  Anne, 
and  her  fortunate  husband,  Edward  Osborne. 

Edward  Osborne  was  then  between  thirty-five 


Ned  Osborne  and  Anne  Hewitt.  67 

and  forty  years  old.  More  than  twenty  years  be¬ 
fore,  his  father,  a  well-to-do  gentleman  of  Kent, 
had  sent  him  to  London  to  make  his  fortune  as  a 
merchant.  The  lad  was  apprenticed  to  Sir  William 
Hewit,  and  a  lodging  was  found  for  him  in  the 
London  Bridge  house.  There  he  was  looking  out 
of  a  window  one  day,  while,  at  another  open’  win¬ 
dow,  as  it  seems,  a  nurse  was  playing  with  his  mas¬ 
ter’s  little  daughter,  a  child  of  two  or  three  years 
old.  The  play  was  dangerous,  and  the  little  girl, 
leaning  over  or  jumping  out,  slipped  from  the 
nurse’s  hold  and  fell  into  the  river.  By  good  chance 
young  Ned  Osborne  saw  the  accident,  and  had  the 
wit,  without  loss  of  a  moment,  to  jump  into  the 
river  after  her,  and  thus  save  her  from  drowning. 

That  good  service,  we  may  be  sure,  endeared 
young  Osborne  to  his  master.  He  found  him  a 
ready  scholar  in  ways  of  commerce,  and  he  helped 
him  on  to  the  utmost.  He  made  him,  when  his 
apprenticeship  was  over,  a  partner  in  his  business  ; 
and  when  the  young  lady  whose  life  he  had  saved 
was  old  enough,  he  gave  her  to  him  for  a  wife. 
Plenty  of  other  lovers  gathered  round  her  ;  rich 
men  and  men  of  rank,  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury  at 
the  head  of  them,  sought  her  hand  ;  and  Sir  William 
Hewit  was  often  advised  to  bestow  her  upon  a  hus¬ 
band  of  good  station  in  the  world.  But  he  steadily 
refused.  “  Osborne  did  save  her,”  he  always  said  ; 
‘‘Osborne  shall  have  her.” 

The  marriage  occurred  in  1565  or  1566.  About 
that  time  Osborne  began  to  take  an  important 


68 


Osborne's  Contemporaries. 


place  for  himself  in  the  world  of  London  commerce, 
of  which  Sir  Thomas  Gresham  was  then  the  king. 
There  was  a  crowd  of  other  famous  merchants  then 
alive,  none  greater  perhaps  than  Sir  Lionel  Ducket. 
The  son  of  a  Nottingham  gentleman,  he  was  Lord 
Mayor  in  1573,  and  sharer  in  nearly  every  great 
enterprise  of  those  times.  We  hear  of  him  some¬ 
times  as  employing  agents  to  melt  silver  and  cop¬ 
per  for  him  in  Germany  ;  sometimes  as  setting  up 
furnaces  for  the  same  purpose  in  England.  At 
one  time,  we  see  him  busy  about  the  manufacture 
of  cloth  ;  at  another,  he  is  forming  a  company  to 
construct  water-works  for  the  draining  of  mines. 
He  was  a  great  encourager  of  those  schemes  of  dis¬ 
tant  voyaging  and  discovery  which  sent  Frobisher 
and  Davis  into  the  polar  regions,  which  caused 
Drake  and  Cavendish  to  sail  round  the  world,  and 
which  induced  a  score  of  other  famous  men  to  try 
their  fortunes  in  various  seas  and  climes  in  search  of 
new  fields  for  conqnest,  commerce,  and  civilization. 
He  was  one  of  the  richest  men  of  his  time.  To 
each  of  his  three  daughters,  we  are  told,  he  gave 
as  dowry  upward  of  £5000  in  Tudor  money ;  and 
when  asked  why  he  had  not  given  more,  he  an¬ 
swered  that  that  was  as  much  as  it  was  seemly  for 
him  to  bestow,  since  Queen  Elizabeth  herself,  on 
ascending  the  throne,  had  found  only  ,£10,000  in 
her  exchequer. 

Another  famous  merchant,  an  old  man  in  Os¬ 
borne’s  youth,  was  Sir  John  Spencer,  generally 
known  as  “  Rich  Spencer,”  to  distinguish  him  from 


Osborne  and  Stafier. 


69 


his  poor  but  more  illustrious  kinsman,  Edmund 
Spencer,  the  poet.  He  was  chosen  Sheriff  of  Lon¬ 
don  in  1584,  and  Lord  Mayor  in  1594,  and  he  took 
a  leading  part  in  the  preparations  made  by  patri¬ 
otic  Londoners,  never  more  patriotic  than  then,  to 
defend  the  kingdom  from  the  great  attempt  made 
by  Philip  II.  of  Spain  to  conquer  England  by  means 
of  the  fleet  which  he  vainly  termed  his  Invincible 
Armada. 

Among  .a  multitude  of  other  great  merchants 
of  London  in  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth  was 
Richard  Staper,  a  native  of  Plymouth.  With  him 
Edward  Osborne,  on  the  death  of  his  father-in-law, 
seems  to  have  entered  into  a  sort  of  partnership. 
They  traded,  as  Gresham  and  the  others  did,  in  all 
sorts  of  commodities  brought  from  the  Continent 
to  England,  as  well  as  in  the  various  English  goods, 
which  were  found  useful  to  Continental  buyers. 
They  also  shared  in  trade  to  more  distant  parts. 

A  curious  letter  exists,  written  in  1578  by  a  John 
Withal,  one  of  the  first  Englishmen  who  visited 
South  America,  telling  how  he  had  found  his  way 
to  Brazil,  and  desired  to  promote  English  trade 
with  the  new  Portuguese  settlements  and  the  rude 
natives  in  that  region.  He  urged  Osborne  &  Sta¬ 
per  to  send  a  cargo  of  London  goods  to  Brazil, 
where  they  could  be  sold  for  thrice  their  value  at 
home,  and  to  let  the  ship  return  loaded  with  some 
of  the  excellent  sugar  produced  there.  “  If  you 
have  any  stomach  thereto,”  he  said,  “  in  the  name 
of  Cod  do  you  espy  out  a  fine  bark  of  70  or  80 


70  Their  Trading  Enterprises. 

tons,  and  send  her  hither.”  Of  the  sort  of  goods 
to  be  put  into  this  “  fine  bark  ”  he  gave  a  careful 
list,  including  woollen  goods  of  all  sorts,  cloths  and 
flannels,  hollands  and  hose,  shirts  and  doublets, 
besides  “  4  pounds  of  silk,  4  dozen  scissors,  24 
dozen  knives,  6000  fish-hooks,  and  400  pounds  of 
tin,  with  a  little  scarlet,  parchment,  lace,  and  crim¬ 
son  velvet.” 

Staper  &  Osborne  do  not  appear  to  have  sent 
out  the  cargo  asked  for  by  Withal.  They  left  other 
merchants  to  begin  the  great  English  trade  with 
South  America,  and  made  it  their  chief  business 
to  open  up  a  thriving  trade  with  a  district  nearer 
England,  though  far  enough  off  to  be  reached  only 
by  dangerous  voyaging.  This  district  included 
Turkey,  and  the  adjoining  shores  of  the  Mediter¬ 
ranean  known  as  the  Levant.  Thither,  in  former 
times,  before  the  passage  round  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  had  been  discovered,  merchants  of  various 
nations  had  brought  all  the  costly  merchandise  of 
the  East  Indies,  rich  spices  and  precious  stones 
silks,  laces,  calicoes,  and  other  textile  goods.  All 
through  the  Middle  Ages  the  great  Venetian  mer¬ 
chants  had  bought  up  these  articles,  and  sent  their 
ships  with  them  to  Antwerp  and  London,  and  the 
other  trading  towns  of  western  Europe.  But,  as 
English  merchants  grew  in  wealth  and  influence, 
they  grudged  the  profits  which  the  Venetians  se¬ 
cured  by  this  arrangement.  They  resolved  to  go 
to  the  Levant  and  buy  the  goods  for  themselves, 
direct  from  the  eastern  merchants,  who  brought  it 


The  Turkey  Company. 


7i 


thither  in  their  caravans.  This  they  had  done  in 
irregular  ways,  yet  with  great  profit,  for  more  than 
a  century  before  the  time  of  Edward  Osborne. 
Osborne  and  his  friends  determined  that  it  should 
be  done  in  a  more  systematic  way  and  with  much 
more  profit;  and  with  that  object,  in  1581,  they 
founded  the  Levant  or  Turkey  Company.  The 
charter  of  the  company,  granted  in  that  year  by 
Queen  Elizabeth,  tells  how  “  Sir  Edward  Osborne 
and  Richard  Staper  had,  at  their  own  great  costs 
and  charges,  found  out  and  opened  a  trade  to  Tur¬ 
key,  not  heretofore,  in  the  memory  of  any  man  now 
living,  known  to  be  commonly  used  and  frequented 
by  way  of  merchandise  by  any  English  merchants  ; 
whereby  many  good  offices  may  be  done  for  the 
peace  of  Christendom,  relief  of  Christian  slaves, 
and  good  vent  for  the  commodities  of  the  realm, 
to  the  advancement'of  the  Queen’s  honor  and  dig¬ 
nity,  the  increase  of  her  revenue,  and  the  general 
wealth  of  the  realm.” 

Therefore  the  Turkey  Company  was  founded, 
with  Edward  Osborne  for  its  first  governor,  and 
Richard  Staper,  Thomas  Smythe,  and  eleven  oth¬ 
ers,  for  its  first  directors  under  him.  They  alone, 
of  Englishmen,  were  to  be  allowed  to  trade  with 
Turkey,  and  a  share  of  their  profits  was  to  be  paid 
to  the  Queen  in  return  for  the  privileges  thus 
granted  to  them.  They  lost  no  time  in  fitting  out 
some  large  vessels — so  large  and  so  well  made 
that  the  merchants  were  publicly  thanked  by 
Queen  Elizabeth  for  their  skillful  ship-building. 


72 


Its  First  Expectations. 


In  1592,  one  of  these  ships — the  Susan — was  sent 
out  under  competent  agents,  instructed  to  make  a 
treaty  with  the  Porte  to  establish  consuls  in  the 
different  towns,  and  to  open  up  an  active  trade. 
Messengers  were  especially  sent  to  inquire  into  the 
nature  of  dyeing-stuffs  in  Italy,  and  into  the  art  of 
dyeing ;  also  what  species  of  them  might  be  pro¬ 
duced  in  England,  and  how  beneficial  such  new 
productions  might  be  to  us.  The  Susan  was  pro¬ 
vided  with  thirty-four  guns  with  which  to  resist 
any  .attacks  that  might  be  made  by  the  Pirates  of 
Algiers,  Tunis,  and  Tripoli.  Pirates  did  give  them 
some  trouble,  but  the  voyage  was  very  successful, 
as  were  most  of  the  other  voyages  undertaken 
every  year  during  the  lifetime  of  Sir  Edward  Os¬ 
borne. 

The  prosperous  trade,  however,  was  not  carried 
on  without  danger.  In  1583,  one  of  the  Turkey 
Company’s  ships,  named  the  Jesus,  laden  with  cur¬ 
rants  and  other  articles  from  Morea,  was  attacked 
by  two  Algerian  galleys  and  sunk  after  being  rob¬ 
bed  of  her  valuable  contents.  “  The  greatest  num¬ 
ber  of  the  men  thereof  were  slain  and  drowned  in 
the  sea,  the  residue  being  detained  as  slaves,’.’  said 
Sir  Edward  Osborne  in  the  letter  which  he  wrote 
to  the  Dey  of  Algiers,  complaining  of  his  subjects’ 
conduct,  and  urging  him  to  punish  them  for  it,  and 
to  force  them  to  make  restitution.  Osborne  was 
especially  anxious,  as  he  should  be,  in  seeking  the 
Dey’s  “  aid  and  favor,  that  the  poor  men  detained 
in  captivity  might  be  set  at  liberty,  and  return  into 


The  Turkey  Company. 


73 


their  country.”  This  was  not  clone  for  two  years, 
many  of  the  prisoners  having  cliecl  of  the  cruel 
treatment  that  they  received  in  the  interval. 

Moorish  pirates  were  not  the  only  enemies 
whom  Osborne’s  merchantmen  had  to  withstand. 
The  years  in  which  the  Levant  Company  began 
its  work  were  years  of  fierce  jealousy  between  En¬ 
gland  and  Spain.  It  was  in  1588  that  Philip  II. 
sent  his  great  Armada  to  be  utterly  overthrown  in 


A  Galley  of  the  lGtli  Century. 


its  attempt  to  conquer  England.  In  the  years 
before  and  the  years  after  that  great  event,  there 
was  desperate  fighting  on  the  sea  between  Span¬ 
iards  and  Englishmen  ;  and  as  the  ships  of  the 
Turkey  Company  had  to  pass  all  round  the  coast 
of  Spain,  and  through  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  they 
were  particularly  liable  to  attacks  from  their  dead¬ 
ly  enemy.  One  such  attack  was  made  in  1586, 
when  eleven  Spanish  galleys  and  frigates  made 
an  assault  on  the  fleet  of  five  vessels  which  was 


74 


A  Fight  with  Spaniards. 


that  year  dispatched  by  the  Turkey  Company  for 
trade  in  the  Levant.  They  were  bravely  met.  and 
bravely  driven  off. 

A  much  more  memorable  fight,  however,  occur¬ 
red  in  1590.  Ten  merchantmen  had,  in  the  au¬ 
tumn  of  1589,  been  sent  out  by  the  Company.  Re¬ 
turning  in  the  following  spring,  laden  with  the  prod¬ 
uce  of  the  East,  they  met  for  mutual  protection, 
according  to  custom,  near  the  coast  of  Barbary. 
The  meeting  was  fortunate ;  for  twelve  great  Span¬ 
ish  galleys,  “  bravely  furnished  and  strongly  pro¬ 
vided  with  men  and  ammunition,”  were  lying  in 
wait  for  them.  Let  the  rest  of  the  story  be  told 
in  the  quaint  words  of  one  of  the  party  :  “  In  the 
morning  early,  being  the  24th  of  April,”  he  says, 
“  according  to  our  usual  customs,  we  said  service 
and  made  our  prayers  unto  Almighty  God,  beseech¬ 
ing  Him  to  save  us  from  the  hands  of  such  tyrants 
as  the  Spaniards,  whom  we  knew  and  had  found 
to  be  our  most  mortal  enemies  upon  the  sea.  And 
having  finished  our  prayers,  and  set ’ourselves  in 
readiness,  we  perceived  them  to  come  toward  us, 
and  that  they  were  indeed  the  Spanish  galleys  that 
lay  under  the  conduct  of  Andrew  Doria,  who  is 
Viceroy  for  the  King  of  Spain  in  the  Straits  of 
Gibraltar,  and  a  notable  enemy  to  all  Englishmen. 
So,  when  they  came  somewhat  nearer  to  us,  they 
waved  us  a  main  for  the  King  of  Spain,  and  we 
waved  them  a  main  for  the  Queen  of  England,  at 
which  time  it  pleased  Almighty  God  greatly  to  en¬ 
courage  us  all  in  such  sort  as  that  the  nearer  they 


A  Fight  with  Spaniards. 


75 


came  the  less  we  feared  their-  great  multitude  and 
huge  number  of  men,  which  were  planted  in  those 
galleys  to  the  number  .of  two  or  three  hundred  men 
in  each  galley.  And  it  was  thus  concluded  among 
u£,  that  the  four  first  and  tallest  ships  should  be 
placed  hindmost,  and  the  weaker  and  smallest 
ships  foremost ;  and  so  it  was  performed,  every 
man  being  ready  to  take  part  of  such  success  as  it 
should  please  God  to  send.  At  the  first  encoun¬ 
ter,  the  galleys  came  upon  us  very  fiercely ;  yet  so 
God  strengthened  us,  that,  if  they  had  been  ten 
times  more,  we  had  not  feared  them  at  all.  Where¬ 
upon  the  Solomon ,  being  a  hot  ship,  and  having 
sundry  cast  pieces  in  her,  gave  the  first  shot  in 
such  sour  sort  as  that  it  sheared  away  so  many 
men  as  sat  on  one  side  of  a  galley,  and  pierced 
her  through  in  such  manner  as  that  she  was  ready 
to  sink ;  which  made  them  to  assault  us  the  more 
fiercely.  Whereupon  the  rest  of  our  ships,  espe¬ 
cially  the  Margaret  and  John,  the  Minion,  and  the 
Ascension,  followed,  and  gave  a  hot  charge  upon 
them,  and  they  at  us,  where  began  a  hot  and  fierce 
battle  with  great  valiancy,  the  one  against  the  oth¬ 
er,  and  so  continued  for  the  space  of  six  hours. 
About  the  beginning  of  this  our  fight  there  came 
two  Flemings  to  our  fleet,  who,  seeing  the  force  of 
the  galleys  to  be  so  great,  the  one  of  them  present¬ 
ly  yielded,  struck  his  sails,  and  was  taken  by  the 
galleys  ;  whereas,  if  they  would  have  offered  them¬ 
selves  to  have  fought  in  our  behalf  and  their  own 
defense,  they  needed  not  to  have  been  taken  so 


76 


Right  and  Might. 


cowardly  as  they  were  to  their  cost.  The  other 
Fleming,  being  also  ready  to  perform  the  like  piece 
of  service,  began  to  veil  his  sails,  and  intended  to 
have  yielded  immediately.  But  the  trumpeter  in 
that  ship  plucked  up  his  falchion,  and  slipped  to 
the  pilot  at  the  helm,  and  vowed  that,  if  he  did 
not  speedily  put  off  to  the  English  fleet,  and  so  take 
part  with  them,  he  would  speedily  kill  him  ;  which 
the  pilot  for  fear  of  death  did,  and  so  by  that  means 
they  were  defended  from  present  death,  and  from 
the  tyranny  of  those  Spaniards,  which  doubtless 
they  should  have  found  at  their  hands.  Thus  we 
continued  in  fight  six  hours  and  somewhat  more, 
wherein  God  gave  us  the  upper  hand,  and  we  es¬ 
caped  the  hands  of  so  many  enemies,  who  were 
constrained  to  flee  into  harbor  and  shroud  them¬ 
selves  from  us,  and  with  speed  to  seek  for  their 
own  safety.  This  was  the  handiwork  of  God,  who 
defended  us  from  danger  in  such  sort  as  that  there 
was  not  one  man  of  us  slain.  And  in  all  this  fierce 
assault  made  upon  us  by  the  Spanish  power,  we 
sustained  no  hurt  or  damage  more  than  this,  that 
the  shrouds  and  backstays  of  the  Solomon,  who 
gave  the  first  and  last  shot,  and  galled  the  ene¬ 
my  shrewdly  all  the  time  of  the  battle,  were  clear 
stricken  off.  After  the  battle  was  ceased — which 
was  on  Easter  Tuesday — we  staid  for  want  of  wind 
before  Gibraltar  until  the  next  morning,  when  we 
were  becalmed,  and  therefore  looked  every  hour 
when  they  would  have  sent  forth  some  fresh  sup¬ 
ply  against  us  ;  but  they  were  unable  to  do  it ;  for 


The  Turkey  Company. 


77 


all  their  galleys,  were  so  sore  battered  that  they 
durst  not  come  forth  of  the  harbor,  by  reason  of 
our  hot  resistance  which  they  so  lately  before  had 
received.” 

In  that  brave  way  the  merchantmen  of  En¬ 
gland  under  Elizabeth  withstood  the  force  of  the 
proud  Spanish  ships  of  war,  even  in  Spanish  wa¬ 
ters.  Men  who  could  fight  so  bravely,  so  piously, 
and  so  triumphantly,  deserved  success.  And  the 
Turkey  Company,  in  spite  of  all  the  obstacles 
thrown  in  its  way,  succeeded  famously.  All  the 
articles  of  Eastern  produce  which  Venetian  mer¬ 
chants  had  hitherto  been  almost  the  only  ones  to 
bring  to  England,  were  by  it  made  available  for 
English  use  in  much  greater  abundance,  and  at 
much  less  cost.  The  benefits  that  sprang  from  it 
were  acknowledged  by  his  grateful  contempora¬ 
ries  to  be  chiefly  due  to  Sir  Edward  Osborne. 

Osborne  was  not  exclusively  devoted,  however, 
to  the  Turkey  Company.  Having  been  made 
Sheriff  of  London  in  1574,  he  was  chosen  Lord 
Mayor  in  1583,  and  during  his  year  of  office  he 
seems  to  have  been  unusually  zealous  in  seeking 
the  welfare  of  the  city.  On  the  14th  of  December 
he  petitioned  Queen  Elizabeth’s  Council  that  car¬ 
riers  might  be  prevented  from  travelling  on  the 
Sabbath-day,  either  in  London  or  in  its  suburbs. 
A  fortnight  later  he  addressed  the  Council  again, 
complaining  of  the  great  number  of  Irish  beggars 
and  vagrants  who  infested  the  city  and  had  to  be 
committed  to  Bridewell,  and  begging  that  they 


78 


Osborne’s  Other  Work. 


might  all  be  sent  back  to  their  own  country,  and 
that  care  might  be  taken  to  prevent  any  others 
from  coming  in  their  place.  In  the  following 
spring,  again,  we  find  him  corresponding  with  Sir 
Francis  Walsingham,  the  Secretary  of  State,  about 
the  ancient  rights  of  the  city  of  London  to  control 
the  affairs  of  Southwark. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  these  and  kindred  actions,  Sir 
Edward  Osborne  was  especially  a  merchant.  As 
appears  by  his  establishment  of  the  Turkey  Com¬ 
pany,  his  trading  projects  went  far  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  Cloth  workers’  Guild,  of  which  he  was 
in  his  day  the  chief  ornament.  And  his  trading 
projects  even  exceeded  the  province,  wide  though 
that  was,  of  the  Turkey  Company.  In  1583,  short¬ 
ly  before  his  mayoralty,  he  and  his  partners  in  the 
company  sent  four  merchants,  named  Fitch,  New¬ 
berry,  Leedes,  and  Storey,  to  the  Levant  with  in¬ 
structions  to  proceed  thence  overland  to  India, 
whither  only  one  Englishman,  Thomas  Stevens,  a 
Jesuit  priest,  is  known  to  have  gone  before  them 
for  a  century  or  more.  Proceeding  on  their  er¬ 
rand,  they  conveyed  some  cloth  and  tin,  as  sam¬ 
ples  of  English  commerce,  to  Aleppo,  and  after¬ 
ward  to  Bagdad.  Thence  they  passed  down  the 
Tigris  to  Ormuz,  and  so  on  by  sea  to  Goa,  where 
they  arrived  near  the  end  of  the  year.  There  they 
were  roughly  used,  chiefly  through  the  jealousy  of 
some  Portuguese  merchants,  who,  having  learned 
the  way  to  carry  on  a  prosperous  trade  with  India, 
were  unwilling  to  let  the  English  share  it  with 


Osborne’s  Last  Work. 


79 


them.  Father  Stevens,  however,  and  his  fellow- 
Jesuits  interested  themselves  on  behalf  of  the 
travellers.  “’Had  it  not  pleased  God,”  said  New¬ 
berry,  “  to  put  into  their  minds  to  stand  our  friends, 
we  might  have  rotted  in  prison.”  By  Stevens’s 
help,  they  escaped  with  only  a  short  captivity,  and 
were  able  to  extend  their  journey  to  many  inland 
parts  of  India — to  Ceylon,  Malacca,  and  Pegu. 
Newberry  died  on  the  road,  however ;  Storey  be¬ 
came  a  Jesuit  priest ;  and  Leedes  entered  the 
service  of  the  great  Akbar.  Fitch  travelled  about 
till  1591,  when  he  returned  to  England  to  write  a 
full  account  of  his  wonderful  experiences  and  ob¬ 
servations,  and  thus  to  encourage  his  countrymen 
to  enter  upon  the  famous  trade  with  India,  which 
must  have  been  in  Osborne’s  mind  when  he  sent 
him  out. 

In  that  trade,  however,  Sir  Edward  Osborne 
was  not  able  to  take  part.  Two  years  before 
Fitch’s  return,  though  not  before  the  news  of  his 
adventures  had  reached  England,  in  1589,  Os¬ 
borne,  and  a  number  of  other  London  merchants, 
had  petitioned  Queen  Elizabeth  for  leave  to  send 
some  ships  direct  to  India,  instead  of  following 
the  more  dangerous  plan  of  going  to  Turkey  by 
ship,  and  thence  proceeding  overland.  While  that 
new  project  was  under  consideration,  moreover, 
Osborne  was  active  in  securing  a  fresh  charter  for 
the  Turkey  Company,  which  had  only  been  li¬ 
censed  for  seven  years  from  1581.  In  this  he  suc¬ 
ceeded,  and  in  the  new  charter,  which  was  dated 


So 


Sir  Edward  Osborne's  Death. 


the  7th  of  January,  1591,  it  was  recorded  how 
“our  well-beloved  subjects,  Edward  Osborne, 
knight,  and  Richard  S taper,  have,  by  great  adven¬ 
ture  and  industry,  with  their  great  cost  and 
charges,  by  the  space  of  sundry  late  years,  travel¬ 
led,  and  caused  travel  to  be  taken,  as  well  by  se¬ 
cret  and  good  means,  as  by  dangerous  ways  and 
passages,  both  by  land  and  sea,  to  find  out  and 
set  open  a  trade  of  merchandise  and  traffic  into 
the  lands,  islands,  dominions,  and  territories  of 
the  great  Turk;  whereby  we  perceive  that  many 
good  actions  have  been  done  and  performed,  and 
hereafter  are  likely  continually  to  be  done  and 
performed  for  the  peace  of  Christendom,  and  the 
good  and  profitable  vent  and  utterance  of  the  com¬ 
modities  of  our  realm.”  In  reward  for  these  serv¬ 
ices,  the  old  Turkey  Company  was  allowed  to  be 
reconstructed  and  made  yet  more  useful,  under 
the  name  of  the  Company  of  Merchants  of  the 
Levant.  And  as  Sir  Edward  Osborne  had  been 
“the  chief  setter  forth  and  actor  in  the  opening 
and  putting  into  practice  of  the  said  trade,”  he  • 
was  appointed  its  governor,  for  the  first  year  at 
any  rate,  “if  he  so  long  shall  live.” 

He  did  not  live  so  long.  He  died  early  in 
1591,  about  sixty  years  old,  too  soon  to  take  his 
share  in  establishing  the  great  trade  between  En¬ 
gland  and  India  which  was  to  be  of  such  immense 
advantage  to  both  countries,  but  not  before  he  had 
done  more  good  work  for  commerce  and  civiliza¬ 
tion  than  most  men  are  able  to  achieve.  He  had 


His  Titled  Descendants. 


8 1 


been  able,  too,  to  add  much  by  his  own  exertions 
to  the  wealth  that  came  to  him  through  his  mar¬ 
riage  with  the  daughter  of  Sir  William  Hewit, 
whom  he  had  saved  from  drowning  in  the  Thames. 
His  son,  Sir  Edward  Osborne,  was  made  a  baro¬ 
net  by  Charles  I. ;  and  his  grandson,  Sir  Thomas 
Osborne,  having  been  an  influential  statesman 
under  Charles  II.  and  James  II.,  was  created 
Duke  of  Leeds  by  William  III.  in  1694.  That  is 
only  one  out  of  many  instances  of  famous  peer¬ 
ages  and  great  titled  families  being  made  by  the 
enterprise  and  honesty  of  London  merchants. 

F 


82 


John  Herrick. 


IV. 

SIR  WILLIAM  HERRICK. 

[1557-1653.] 

TN  the  quaint  town  of  Leicester,  in  1589,  died  old 
John  Herrick,  at  the  age  of  seventy-six.  He 
had  been  a  well-to-do  gentleman,  who,  according 
to  the  record  on  his  tombstone,  had  “  lived  at  his 
ease,  with  Mary  his  wife,  in  one  house,  full  two- 
and-fifty  years ;  and  in  all  that  time  never  buried 
man,  woman,  nor  child,  though  they  were  some¬ 
times  twenty  in  household.”  He  had  twelve  chil¬ 
dren,  and  his  wife,  living  till  she  was  ninety-seven, 
“  did  see,  before  her  departure,  of  her  children, 
children’s  children,  and  their  children,  to  the  num¬ 
ber  of  a  hundred  and  forty-two.” 

Most  of  the  children  of  this  fine  old  patriarch 
inherited  his  prosperity  and  happiness.  One  of 
his  daughters  married  Lawrence  Hawes,  another 
married  Sir  Thomas  Bennett,  both  of  them  wealthy 
merchants  of  London.  Robert,  his  eldest  son, 
was  an  iron-monger  and  iron-founder  in  Leicester¬ 
shire,  thrice  mayor  of  his  native  town,  and  its  rep¬ 
resentative  in  Parliament  in  1588.  He  had  ex¬ 
tensive  iron-works,  and  paper-mills  as  well,  in 
Staffordshire.  “You  know,”  he  wrote  to  his 
brother,  “  that  such  pleasant  youths  as  I  am  do 
delight  in  the  pleasant  woods,  to  hear  the  sweet 
birds  sing,  the  hammers  go,  and  beetles  in  the  pa- 


The  Herricks  in  Leicester. 


83 


per-mills  at  the  same  place  also.  For  him  that 
hath  got  most  of  his  wealth  for  this  fifty  years  or 
near  that  way,  and  now  finds  as  good  iron  as  there 
was  this  forty  years,  as  good  weight,  as  good  work¬ 
men,  as  honest  fellows,  as  good  entertainment, 
what  want  you  more  ?”  This  contented  man  “  had 
two  sons  and  nine  daughters  by  one  wife,  with 
whom  he  lived  fifty-one  years,”  and  he  died,  “  very 
godly,”  at  the  age  of  seventy-eight,  in  1618.  His 
portrait  was  placed  by  admiring  friends  in  the 
town-hall  of  Leicester,  with  this  inscription  : 

“  His  picture,  whom  you  here  see 
When  he  is  dead  and  rotten, 

By  this  shall  he  remembered  be, 

When  he  would  be  forgotten.”  . 

Nicholas,  the  next  son  of  worthy  John  Herrick, 
was  sent  to  make  his  fortune  in  London.  He  was 
articled,  in  1556,  to  a  goldsmith  in  Cheapside. 
“  We  do  pray  to  God  daily,”  wrote  his  good  father 
to  him,  when  he  had  only  been  in  London  a  few 
months,  “  to  bless  you,  and  to  give  you  grace  to 
be  good,  diligent,  and  obedient  unto  your  master, 
both  in  word  and  deed ;  and  be  profitable  unto 
him,  as  well  behind  his  back  as  before  his  face  ; 
and  trust  nor  lend  none  of  his  goods  without  his 
leave  and  consent.  And  if  so  be  that  you  be 
faithful  and  painful  in  your  master’s  business,  as  I 
hope  you  be,  doubtless  God  will  provide  for  you 
another  day  the  like  as  much  again.  I  pray  God 
to  give  you  grace  to  live  in  His  fear,  and  then  you 
shall  not  do  amiss  :  and  it  shall  be  a  great  com- 


84 


Young  Willicwi  Herrick. 


fort  for  your  mother  and  me,  and  to  all  your 
friends,  and  best  to  yourself  another  day.” 

The  good  old  man’s  prayers  were  answered. 
Nicholas  Herrick  prospered  in  his  business,  and, 
his  apprenticeship  being  over,  set  up  a  goodly 
shop  of  his  own  in  Cheapside,  near  to  the  memo¬ 
rable  old  Paul’s  Cross,  a  famous  place  for  open- 
air  preaching  upon  great  occasions  during  many 
generations;  which  was  pulled  down  by  order  of 
the  Commonwealth  in  1642. 

To  this  Nicholas  Herrick,  his  younger  brother 
William,  the  most  illustrious  member  of  the  whole 
family,  who  was  born  in  1557,  was  apprenticed  in 
1 573  or  1574.  The  lad  was  in  London  two  or 
three  years  before  he  could  be  spared  from  the 
shop  to  go  down  on  a  visit  to  his  parents.  That 
he  did  in  the  autumn  of  1576  :  “  I  give  you  hearty 
thanks,”  wrote  old  John  Herrick  to  Nicholas, 
“  that  you  would  send  him  to  Leicester  to  see  us, 
for  your  m.other  and  I  did  long  to  see  him,  and  so 
did  his  brothers  and  sisters.  We  thought  that  he 
had  never  been  so  tall  as  he  is,  nor  never  would 
have  been.” 

Very  pleasant  and  instructive  are  the  letters 
that  passed  between  the  members  of  this  happy 
family  of  the  Herricks,  which  time  has  spared  for 
us  to  read.  They  show  us  very  vividly  what  sort 
of  intercourse  existed  between  parents  and  chil¬ 
dren  three  centuries  ago,  in  the  days  of  good 
Queen  Bess. 

The  tall  lad  was  not  able  to  stay  long  in  Leices- 


Herrick  and  his  Parents. 


85 


ter.  He  soon  returned  to  London,  to  be  follow¬ 
ed  by  the  loving  thoughts  of  his  parents.  Here 
is  part  of  a  letter  written  in  1578  by  the  moth¬ 
er  to  aher  loving  son  William  Herrick,  in  Lon¬ 
don,  dwelling  with  Nicholas  Herrick,  in  Cheap,” 
which  is  none  the  worse  for  its  bad  grammar  : 
“  William,  with  my  hearty  commendations,  and 
glad  to  hear  of  your  good  health,  etc. ;  and  this  is 
to  give  you  thanks  for  my  pomegranate  and  red 
herring  you  sent  me,  wishing  you  to  give  my 
daughter  Hawes  thanks  for  the  pomegranate  and 
box  of  marmalade  that  she  sent  me.  Furthermore 
I  have  sent  you  a  pair  of  knit  hose,  and  a  pair  of 
knit  kersey  gloves.  I  would  have  you  send  me 
word  how  they  serve  you ;  for  if  the  gloves  be  too 
little  for  you,  you  should  give  them  to  one  of  your 
brother  Hawes’s  children,  and  I  would  send  you 
another  pair.” 

Red  herrings  and  pomegranates,  and  other  del¬ 
icacies,  not  easily  to  be  procured  in  Leicester, 
seem  to  have  been  sent  down  by  Master  William 
as  often  as  he  had  an  opportunity  of  confiding 
them  to  the  care  of  some  chance  traveller,  in  days 
when  there  were  not  even  coaches  to  travel  by ; 
and,  in  exchange,  he  received  occasional  parcels 
of  warm  stockings  and  other  household  goods. 
In  a  letter  written  in  March,  1580,  we  find  John 
Herrick  thanking  William,  and  his  brothers  and 
sisters  in  London,  for  “  all  their  tokens.”  “  And 
we  be  sorry,”  he  proceeds,  “  that  you  have  been  at 
so  much  cost  as  you  were  at  for  your  oysters  and 


86  Father  Herrick’s  Complaints. 

lampreys  you  sent.  A  quartern  of  them  had  been 
sufficient  to  send  at  one  time.  I  would  have  you 
be  a  good  husband,  and  save  your  money.  My 
cousin,  Thomas  Herrick,  and  his  wife,  hath  sent 
you  a  gammon  of  bacon,  with  commendation  to 
your  sister  Mary  and  you.” 

Near  the  end  of  1582  Nicholas  Herrick  took  to 
himself  a  wife.  “  I  trust  now  that  you  be  a  mar¬ 
ried  man,”  wrote  his  father  on  the  15th  of  Decem¬ 
ber,  “  for  I  heard  th.at  you  were  appointed  to  mar¬ 
ry  on  Monday ;  and  if  you  be  married,  we  pray 
God  to  send  you  both  much  joy  and  comfort  to¬ 
gether,  and  to  all  her  friends  and  yours.  We  wish 
ourselves  that  we  had  been  with  you  at  your  wed¬ 
ding.  But  the  time  of  the  year  is  so  that  it  had 
been  painful  to  your  mother  and  me  to  have  rid¬ 
den  such  a  journey,  the  days  being  so  short  and 
the  way  so  foul ;  chiefly,  being  so  old  and  un¬ 
wieldy  as  we  both  be  ;  and  specially  your  mother 
hath  such  pains  in  one  of  her  knee-bones  that  she 
can  not  go  many  times  about  the  house  without 
a  staff  in  her  hand  :  and  I  myself  have  had,  for  the 
space  of  almost  this  half-year,  much  pain  of  my 
right  shoulder,  that  I  can  not  get  on  my  gown 
without  help.  Age  bringeth  infirmities  with  it ; 
God  hath  so  ordained.” 

One  of  the  infirmities  of  age  that  afflicted  the 
good  old  man  was  a  little  sharpness  of  temper. 
Touches  of  anger  are  in  his  later  letters  which  are 
entirely  wanting  in  his  earlier  ones.  “  I  pray  you,” 
he  wrote  to  William  in  March,  1583,  “show  your 


Mary  Herrick’s  Stubbornness.  87 

brother  Nicholas  that  I  think  that  paper  is  scant 
in  London,  because  I  never  received  any  letter 
from  him  since  he  was  married.” 

And  Nicholas  was  not  the  only  child  of  whom 
John  Herrick  made  complaint.  His  daughter 
Mary  had  gone  up  to  London  many  years  before, 
as  companion  to  Nicholas  ;  and  she  found  London 
life  so  much  pleasanter  than  Leicester  life,  that 
when  the  special  object  of  her  stay  was  over  she 
was  not  willing  to  go  home  again.  So  her  father 
sent  her  a  scolding  letter  in  June,  1583:  “You 
were  obedient  at  our  desire,”  he  said,  “  to  go  to 
London,  to  keep  your  brother’s  house  when  he  had 
need  of  you  ;  but  now  he,  being  married,  may  spare 
you.  He  is  very  sorry  that  you  should  take  the 
turns  you  do,  but  he  tells  your  mother  and  me  that 
you  will  needs  do  so.  You  ought  to  be  obedient 
unto  us  now,  as  you  were  at  your  going  up ;  and 
not  only  then  and  now,  but  at  all  times,  as  you 
know  by  the  commandment  of  God  you  ought  to 
be  ;  likewise  you  be  bound  to  be  obedient  to  your 
parents  by  the  law  of  nature  and  by  the  law  of  the 
realm.  We  would  be  both  very  sorry  that  you 
should  be  found  disobedient  to  us  or  stubborn. 
We  do  not  send  for  you  for  any  ill  purpose  toward 
you,  but  for  your  comfort  and  ours.  We  do  not 
send  for  you  to  work  or  toil  about  any  business, 
but  to  oversee  my  house,  and  do  your  own  work, 
and  have  a  chamber  to  yourself,  and  one  of  your 
sisters  to  bear  you  company.  I  thank  God  all  your 
brethren  and  sisters  do  show  themselves  obedient 


88  Death  among  the  Herricks. 

to  your  mother  and  me  ;  and,  in  doing  so,  they  do 
but  their  duty,  and  God  will  bless  them  the  better 
for  it.  I  pray  you  let  me  not  find  you  contrary  to 
them,  for  if  you  do,  it  will  be  a  great  grief  to  your 
mother  and  me,  in  these  our  old  days,  and  be  an 
occasion  to  shorten  our  days,  which  can  not  be 
long  ;  but  grief  of  heart  and  mind  will  shorten  life, 
as  daily  experience  doth  show.  Remember  your- 
self  whether  you  have  cjone  well  or  no.  We  might 
have  commanded  you,  but  we  have  desired  and 
prayed  you,  and  you  refuse  to  be  obedient.” 

Mary  Herrick  still  refused  ;  yet  it  is  likely  that 
she  was  forgiven  when  her  father  heard  that  the 
reason  for  her  staying  in  London  was  a  forthcoming 
marriage  between  her  and  the  rich  merchant,  Sir 
Thomas  Bennett,  who  was  Lord  Mayor  of  London 
in  1603. 

Six  years  after  the  short  quarrel  with  his  daugh¬ 
ter  John  Herrick  died,  and  before  long,  in  the 
prime  of  life,  his  son  Nicholas  died  also.  “  I  do 
advertise  you,”  the  father  had  written  twelve  or 
thirteen  years  before,  “  to  make  your  book  of  reck¬ 
oning  perfect,  as  well  what  you  do  owe  as  what  you 
have  owing.  For  we  be  all  uncertain  when  it  shall 
please  God  to  call  us,  whether  in  young  age,  mid¬ 
dle  age,  or  old  age.”  The  warning  was  needed  by 
Nicholas  Herrick.  Death’s  summons  to  him  was 
very  sudden.  Looking  one  day  out  of  an  upper 
window  of  his  house  in  Cheapside,  he  fell  into  the 
street,  and  so  was  killed. 

He  left  one  infant  son,  Robert  Herrick,  who,  be- 


The  London  Goldsmiths. 


89 


coming  a  parson,  was  one  of  the  sweetest  of  all 
the  sweet  singers  that  fluttered  about  the  court  of 
Charles  I.,  and  another  son,  who  attained  eminence 
as  a  merchant.  But  his  real  successor  in  the  gold¬ 
smith’s  business  in  Cheapside  was  his  younger 
brother  and  former  apprentice,  William. 

The  trade  of  a  goldsmith  was  then  one  of  the 
most  lucrative  and  honorable  that  an  Englishman 
could  follow.  It  meant  much  more  than  dealing 
in  jewelry  and  golden  trinkets.  The  old  Gold¬ 
smiths’  Guild  had  the  exclusive  power  of  coining 
money  ;  and  to  its  members  belonged  especially 
that  irregular  sort  of  banking,  which,  before  it  was 
assigned  to  a  particular  cldss  of  traders,  was  also 
often  resorted  to  by  great  merchants  like  Whitting¬ 
ton  and  Gresham.  The  goldsmiths,  whose  shops 
were  generally  in  Cheapside,  were  great  money¬ 
lenders  and  money-changers.  Kings  and  nobles, 
country  gentlemen  and  merchants,  if  in  need  of 
cash,  brought  them  not  only  their  jewels  and  trink¬ 
ets,  but  often  their  title-deeds  and  written  bonds,  to 
be  held  in  security  for  the  coin  which  they  required 
to  borrow.  Thus  they  were  something  between 
the  pawnbrokers  and  the  bankers  of  modern  times. 
All  who  needed  money,  and  to  whom  it  was  safe  to 
lend  it,  borrowed  from  them,  and  paid  good  inter¬ 
est  for.  the  loans,  often  forfeiting  their  property 
when  they  were  unable  to  pay  back  the  debts  at 
the  proper  time,  and  thus  adding  yet  more  to  the 
wealth  of  the  lenders. 

Among  the  goldsmiths  of  this  sort,  in  the  time 


9° 


Herrick's  Occupations. 


of  Queen  Elizabeth,  William  Herrick  came  to  be 
the  most  eminent.  The  Queen  herself  was  one  of 
his  best  customers.  Employing  Gresham,  Duck¬ 
et,  and  others,  to  conduct  her  foreign  monetary 
business,  she  went  to  Herrick  for  the  small  loans 
and  minor  bargains  to  which,  her  exchequer  being 
often  nearly  empty,  she  very  often  had  to  resort. 
Could  we  discover  the  ledgers  which  old  John 
Herrick  bade  his  son  keep  carefully,  we  should 
see  a  wonderful  array  of  loans,  not  only  to  Eliza¬ 
beth,  but  also  to  nearly  every  one  of  her  famous 
courtiers,  the  great  Earl  of  Leicester,  and  his  no¬ 
ble  nephew  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  the  great  Earl  of 
Essex,  and  his  worthier  rival  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
and  half  a  hundred  other  men  of  excellent  wit  and 
excellent  grace  ;  men  whose  courtly  bearing,  noble 
thought,  and  noble  action,  make  the  age  of  Queen 
Elizabeth  the  most  illustrious  in  our  history. 

So  high  was  Elizabeth’s  opinion  of  Herrick, 
that  she  once  sent  him  as  ambassador  to  the  Sul¬ 
tan  of  Turkey.  But  she  generally  found  occupa¬ 
tion  enough  for  him  in  his  proper  trade.  To  her 
and  to  her  subjects  he  lent  money  almost  without 
limit  ;  and  out  of  the  interest  thereon,  as  well  as 
out  of  the  profits  of  his  ordinary  work  as  a  gold¬ 
smith,  he  was  rich  enough  in  1595  to  buy  Beau- 
manor  Park,  in  Leicestershire.  In  1601  he  be¬ 
came  member  of  Parliament  for  Leicester  ;  and  on 
that  occasion,  we  are  told,  “  he  gave  to  the  town 
in  kindness  twelve  silver  spoons.” 

In  1603  Queen  Elizabeth  died,  and  James  VI. 


A  Costly  Fire. 


9i 


of  Scotland  became  King  of  England  as  James  I. 
The  new  King,  in  consideration  of  his  long  and 
faithful  service  to  his  late  mistress,  continued  to 
employ  Herrick  in  the  same  sort  of  service,  and 
dignified  it  by  conferring  on  him  the  title  of  Prin¬ 
cipal  Jeweller  or  Teller  to  the  Crown. 

Under  King  James,  however,  Herrick  had  a 
friendly  rival  in  a  man  in  some  respects  worthier 
and  abler  than  himself.  This  man  was  the  famous 
George  Heriot.  Heriot,  born  in  1563,  had  carried 
on  the  same  sort  of  trade,  regular  and  irregular, 
for  more  than  a  dozen  years,  under  King  J ames  in 
Scotland.  His  little  shop  or  booth,  measuring  about 
seven  feet  square,  was  the  richest  spot  in  Edinburgh, 
the  great  resort  of  King  James  and  his  crowd  of 
spendthrift  courtiers.  One  day,  according  to  tra¬ 
dition,  Heriot  visited  the  King  at  Holyrood  House, 
and  seeing  him  sprawling  before  a  fire  of  perfumed 
wood,  praised  it  for  its  sweetness.  “  Ay,”  answered 
the  King,  “  and  it  is  costly.”  Heriot  replied  that, 
if  his  Majesty  would  come  to  his  shop  against  St. 
Giles’s  Kirk,  he  would  show  him  a  yet  costlier 
one.  “  Indeed  and  I  will,”  exclaimed  the  monarch. 

On  reaching  the  shop,  however,  nothing  was  to  be 
* 

seen  but  a  few  poor  flames  flickering  in  the  gold¬ 
smith’s  forge.  “  Is  this,  then,  your  fine  fire  ?”  ask¬ 
ed  King  James.  “Wait  a  little,”  answered  the 
merchant,  “  till  I  get  the  fuel and  then,  opening 
his  chest,  he  took  thence  a  bond  for  ^2000,  which 
he  had  lent  to  the  King,  and  threw  it  among  the 
embers.  “  Now,”  he  asked,  “  whether  is  your  Maj- 


92 


“  Jingling  Geordie .” 


esty’s  fire  or  mine  the  better  ?”  “  Yours,  most 

certainly,  Master  Hefiot,”  was  the  answer. 

Let  all  who  like  believe  the  tale.  But  it  is 
clear  that  Heriot  was  rich  enough  to  pay  his  sov¬ 
ereign  a  compliment  of  this  kind  over  and  over 
again.  He  throve  wonderfully  as  Goldsmith  in 
Ordinary  to  King  James,  and  as  money-lender  to 
both  the  King  and  his  courtiers,  and  when,  in  1605, 
James  went  southward  with  his  wasteful  followers, 
Heriot  followed  him  to  open  a  larger  shop  “  fora- 
nent  the  new  Exchange,”  which  was  just  being  set 
up  in  the  Strand,  on  the  site  of  the  present  Adel- 
phi,  and  to  share  with  William  Herrick  the  lucra¬ 
tive  office  of  Jeweller  to  the  King  of  England. 

Of  Heriot’s  busy  life  in  London  a  clearer  and 
completer  notion  is  to  be  derived  from  the  ficti¬ 
tious  but  truthfully-drawn  portrait  of  him  in  Sir 
Walter  Scott’s  “  Fortunes  of  Nigel,”  than  from  any 
mere  statement  of  the  few  authentic  facts  that  have 
come  down  to  us.  The  “Jingling  Geordie”  of 
Scott’s  delightful  novel,  who,  by  worth  of  charac¬ 
ter,  goodness  of  heart,  and  rectitude  of  principle, 
set  a  noble  example  of  manliness  in  an  over-selfish 
and  ungenerous  age,  who  “  walked  through  life 
with  a  steady  pace  and  an  observant  eye,  neglect¬ 
ing  no  opportunity  of  assisting  those  who  were  not 
possessed  of  the  experience  necessary  for  their 
own  guidance,”  was,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  the 
veritable  George  Heriot  of  real  life.  The  little 
that  we  actually  know  of  his  private  history  shows 
him  to  have  been  a  man  as  kind  and  self-sacri- 


Heriot  and  Heri'ick. 


93 


ficing  in  his  dealings  with  others  as  he  was  up¬ 
right  and  persevering  in  the  pursuit  of  his  own 
fortunes. 

Heriot,  in  the  Strand,  and  Herrick,  in  Cheap- 
side,  ran  a  race  of  wealth  together.  Heriot  was 
plain  George  Heriot  to  the  last.  But  on  Easter 
Tuesday,  in  1605,  says  an  envious  letter-writer  of 
the  time,  “one  Master  William  Herrick,  a  gold¬ 
smith  in  Cheapside,  was  knighted  for  making  a 
hole  in  the  great  diamond  the  King  did  wear. 
The  party  little  expected  the  honor ;  but  he  did 
his  work  so  well  as  won  the  King  to  an  extraor¬ 
dinary  liking  of  it.” 

J ames  I.  knighted  men  for  smaller  services  than 
making  a  hole  in  a  great  diamond ;  and  Sir  Wil¬ 
liam  Herrick  well  deserved  his  honor.  In  the 
same  year  he  again  entered  Parliament  as  mem¬ 
ber  for  Leicester.  He  was  also  chosen  aider- 
man  of  Farringdon  Without,  but  from  this  office, 
as  well  as  from  employment  as  Sheriff  of  Lon¬ 
don,  he  was  afterward  excused,  on  payment  of 
£300,  “in  respect,”  as  it  was  said,  “that  the 
said  Sir  William  is  the  King’s  sworn  servant, 
and  can  not  so  necessarily  afford  the  daily  serv¬ 
ice  as  behoveth.” 

During  the  next  dozen  years  and  more  Sir  Wil¬ 
liam  Herrick  was  in  almost  daily  service  at  the 
Court.  Great  sums  of  money  were  lent  by  him  to 
the  King  in  formal  ways  for  public  and  private 
uses ;  and  he  also  lent  much  money  in  the  less 
regular  ways  of  personal  friendship.  “Since  my 


94 


Herrick  in  Retirement. 


being  teller,”  he  wrote  in  a  petition  dated  1616, 
“  I  have  lent  his  Majesty  divers  great  sums  of 
money  gratis ,  which  none  of  my  fellows  ever  did, 
to  my  loss  and  disadvantage  of  at  least  ,£3000.” 
Yet  all  these  good  offices,  he  complained,  were  for¬ 
gotten,  and  the  ungrateful  monarch  allowed  him 
even  to  be  defrauded  and  tricked  out  of  his  due. 
A  blunder  had  been  made  by  a  clerk  in  copying 
a  deed,  which,  unless  corrected,  would  cause  him 
a  considerable  loss  .every  year.  “  And  yet,  such 
is  my  misfortune,”  he  said,  “that  this  little  and 
just  favor  is  not  yet  allowed  me.” 

That  petition  and  others  of  the  same  sort  were 
answered  with  gracious  words  and  large  promises, 
and  Herrick  continued  to  find  means  for  the  ex¬ 
travagant  indulgences  of  the  King  and  his  son, 
Prince  Charles,  afterward  Charles  I.  He  was  a 
rich  man,  however,  and  found  good  use  for  his 
riches  in  charitable  works  and  schemes  for  local 
improvement  in  Leicester  and  its  neighborhood. 

In  that  neighborhood,  at  his  fine  estate  of 
Beaumanor  Park,  he  seems  to  have  settled  down, 
as  a  retired  merchant  of  great  wealth,  in  or  near 
the  year  1624.  There  he  lived  splendidly  and 
happily,  dealing  kindly  with  his  tenants,  and  win¬ 
ning  their  hearty  love  and  esteem.  At  every 
Christmas  time  these  tenants  crowded  up  with 
presents,  betokening  their  gratitude.  Apples  and 
cakes,  puddings  and  sausages,  chickens,  capons, 
turkeys,  geese,  and  pigs,  here  and  there  “one 
pound  of  currants  ”  or  “  a  bottle  of  claret  wine  ” 


Country  Courtesies. 


95 


are  among  the  articles  which  the  good  and  care¬ 
ful  old  man  noted  down  as  received  from  his  va¬ 
rious  dependents. 

Sometimes,  too,  these  dependents,  according  to 
the  fashion  of  those  days,  entertained  him  with 
quaint  dramatic  shows,  of  the  sort  still  feebly  rep¬ 
resented  by  Jack-in-the-Green  and  Punch-and- 
Judy.  One  of  them  was  prefaced  by  this  speech, 
spoken  by  the  play-master  of  the  day  :  “  The  rare 
report  of  your  worship’s  favor,  gentle  acceptance, 
extraordinary  kindness,  and  most  liberal  entertain¬ 
ment  that  you  have  always  showed  to  your  neigh¬ 
bors,  hath  not  only  won  the  hearts  of  your  domes¬ 
ticated  friends,  but  hath  now  drawn  poor  Amintas, 
even  in  the  waning  of  his  age,  from  the  downs,  to 
come  to  present  himself  and  all  the  fruits  of  his 
forepassed  youth,  the  lively  offspring  of  this  aged 
shepherd,  a  few  silly  boys,  to  make  such  sport  this 
night  in  square-play,  as  shall  in  no  sort  be  of¬ 
fensive  to  you,  nor  much  hurtful  to  them,  if  for¬ 
tune  favor  them  not ;  for  they  bring  not  mount¬ 
ains  of  money,  but  mole-hills  gathered  on  mount¬ 
ains.  I  thought  good,  as  my  duty  is,  to  acquaint 
your  worship  with  my  intended  purpose,  and  de¬ 
sire  to  know  how  you  will  accept  of  me  and  my 
poor  boys,  whose  rudeness  I  hope  you  will  im¬ 
pute  to  my  mean  estate,  for  shepherds  be  no  court- 

*  }  1 

iers. 

Sir  William  Herrick’s  pleasant  life  was  shared 
by  his  good  wife,  the  Lady  Joan,  famous  in  her 
day  for  her  piety  and  her  bounty.  She  had  some 


96 


The  Lady  'Joan  Herrick. 


beauty,  too,  if  there  is  truth  in  an  old  portrait  of 
hers  which  bears  this  motto  : 

“  Art  may  her  outside  thus  present  to  view, 

How  fair  within  no  art  or  tongue  can  show.” 

Something  of  her  inner  character,  however,  may 
be  gathered  from  a  letter  written  by  her  to  her 
husband  when  she  was  absent  from  him  in  1616  : 
“  Sweetheart,”  she  there  says,  “  I  hope  you  remem¬ 
ber  Mr.  Votier’s  ‘Godly  Use  of  Prayer’  every 
morning  and  evening,  with  all  your  company.  As 
you  love  God,  leave  it  not  undone ;  it  shall  bring 
a  blessing  on  you  and  yours.  God  knows  how 
short  our  time  shall  be  on  earth,  as  we  see  daily 
fearful  examples  to  put  us  in  mind  of  our  last  end. 
One  of  our  neighbors  at  Richmond  went  out  to 
milk  her  kine  as  well  as  ever  she  was  in  her  life, 
and  milked  two  kine,  and  suddenly  fell  down 
dead,  and  never  spoke  more.”  Then  she  talks  of 
the  bringing  up  of  her  daughters,  whom  she  does 
not  like  to  send  to  a  boarding-school.  “  If  you 
should  board  them  forth,  they  would  cost  you 
^14  a  year  at  the  least,  and  save  nothing  at  home  ; 
besides,  they  will  never  be  bred  in  religion  as  at 

I  • 

home,  and  wear  out  twice  as  many  clothes  as  at 
home.  All  things  considered,  this  is  the  best 
course.”  So  Lady  Joan  tells  her  husband  that 
she  has  hired  a  governess.  “  My  sister  Hicks 
sent  me  word  of  her,  how  fit  a  woman  she  was  for 
me  to  breed  up  my  girls,  and  I,  knowing  it  of  my 
own  knowledge  to  be  so,  I  hope  you  will  not  be 
angry  with  me  for  it.  God,  that  knows  my  heart, 


Heriofs  Hospital. 


91 


knows  I  was  never  more  loath  to  offend  you  in  all 
my  life  than  I  have  been  within  this  half-year ; 
and  so  I  hope  ever  I  shall  be.” 

In  1624,  at  about  the  same  time  as  Sir  William 
Herrick’s  retirement  from  business,  his  associate 
George  Heriot  died.  Heriot’s  good-heartedness 
was  even  greater  than  Herrick’s.  Having  lived 
an  honest  life  in  times  when  dishonesty  was  too 
much  the  fashion,  he  was  much  occupied  near  its 
close  in  settling  how  best  to  spend  his  large  for¬ 
tune.  He  bequeathed  it  to  his  native  city  of  Ed¬ 
inburgh,  where  Heriot’s  Hospital,  “  for  education, 
nursing,  and  upbringing  of  poor  orphans,”  is  a 
standing  proof  of  his  wise  munificence. 

Sir  William  Herrick  lived  in  well-employed  re¬ 
tirement  for  nearly  thirty  years.  He  died  in  1653, 
at  the  age  of  ninety-six. 

G 


98 


Sir  Tho??ias  Smythc. 


V. 

SIR  THOMAS  SMYTHE. 

[1560-1625.] 

rJ-'HE  richest  and  most  influential  London  mer¬ 
chant  in  the  reign  of  James  I. — richer,  and 
by  reason  of  the  nature  of  his  trade,  more  influen¬ 
tial  than  Sir  William  Herrick — was  Sir  Thomas 
Smythe.  His  father,  also  a  Thomas  Smythe,  was 
an  enterprising  and  prosperous  trader,  contempo¬ 
rary  with  Sir  Thomas  Gresham,  in  the  days  of 
Queen  Elizabeth.  To  a  trade  very  similar  to 
Gresham’s  he  added  the  lucrative  business  of  Cus¬ 
tomer  to  the  Queen ;  that  is,  he  undertook  to  col¬ 
lect  all  the  duties  upon  goods  brought  into  Lon¬ 
don,  or  exported  thence  to  foreign  parts.  Queen 
Elizabeth’s  “customers,”  however,  were  very  dif¬ 
ferent  from  modern  custom-house  officers.  They 
chose  their  own  way  of  levying  the  duties,  and 
made  their  profit  out  of  so  much  as  they  could 
collect  over  and  above  a  fixed  sum  which  they 
paid  every  year  to  the  Crown.  Old  Thomas 
Smythe’s  annual  payment  was  ,£14,000;  and  we 
may  be  sure  that  the  surplus  which  fell  to  his  share 
was  considerable,  probably  more  than  another 
sum  of  ,£14,000. 

His  son  succeeded  him  in  the  office  of  Custom- 


A 7i  Elizabethan  “Custo7?ier.” 


99 


er,  apparently  in  1590.  But  the  foreign  trade  of 
England  had  by  that  time  so  increased,  that  instead 
of  paying  £"14,000  a  year,  as  his  father  had  done, 
he  was  able  to  pay  just  thrice  as  much,  or  £42,000 ; 
and  that  amount  was  raised,  a  few  years  afterward, 
to  ,£50,000  a  year.  Yet  he  made  a  handsome 
profit,  which  helped  him  to  share  in  other  profita¬ 
ble  undertakings. 

Of  the  private  life  of  Thomas  Smythe,  the  son, 
we  know  very  little.  He  was  born  about  1560, 
and  was  a  member  of  the  Skinners’  Guild.  He 
must  have  been  nearly  forty  when,  in.  1600,  he  be¬ 
gan  to  take  a  leading  share  in  the  management  of 
the  great  East  India  Company. 

Nearly  twenty  years  before  there  had  been  talk 
of  sending  English  ships  to  India,  there  to  compete 
with  the  Portuguese  and  Spaniards  in  the  pros¬ 
perous  trade  which  they  had  been  carrying  on  for 
some  time  past.  Great^essels,  known  as  carracks, 
had  gone  out,  two  or  three  or  more  together,  every 
year,  for  the  purpose  of  buying  the  spices  and  oth¬ 
er  costly  commodities,  or  of  seizing  them  by  force 
of  arms,  and  thus  great  wealth  had  come  to  Portu¬ 
gal  and  Spain.  The  English  merchants  coveted 
a  share  of  this  wealth,  and,  during  the  war  between 
England  and  Spain,  they  had  occasionally  possess¬ 
ed  some  of  it  by  waylaying  the  carracks  as  they 
proceeded  homeward  and  capturing  their  contents. 
But  until  the  defeat  of  the  Great  Armada  and  oth¬ 
er  deeds  of  prowess  proved  to  all  the  world  that 
England  was  more  than  a  match  for  Spain,  they 


TOO 


Trade  with  the  East  Indies . 


did  not  dare  to  enter  upon  a  regular  course  of 
trade  with  India.  Sir  Edward  Osborne  and  the 
Turkey  Company  had  procured  some  East  Indian 
merchandise  through  the  Levant,  and  had  sent 
Fitch  and  others  to  pave  the  way  for  an  overland 
commerce.  It  was  reserved  for  Sir  Thomas 
Smythe  and  the  East  India  Company  to  begin  the 
commerce  by  help  of  ships,  rivalling  the  Spanish 
carracks  in  size  and  strength,  which  sailed  to  In¬ 
dia  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

This  was  begun  in  1591,  when  three  large  ves¬ 
sels  were  dispatched  to  the  East.  One  of  them 
was  wrecked  on  the  way,  and  another  was  sent 
home  with  invalids ;  but  the  third,  commanded  by 
Captain  James  Lancaster,  reached  its  destination, 
and  there  laid  the  foundations  of  future  trade. 
Terrible  troubles  befell  Lancaster  and  his  crew  on 
their  homeward  voyage.  Their  ship  and  most  of 
its  people  were  lost,  and  the  few  survivors,  rescued 
by  a  French  vessel,  did  not  reach  England  till 
1594.  The  report  which  they  brought  home  con¬ 
cerning  the  wealth  of  the  East  Indies  and  the  pros¬ 
pects  of  a  wonderful  trade  with  them,  however,  en¬ 
couraged  the  London  merchants  to  make  prepara¬ 
tions  for  further  enterprise  in  the  same  direction. 
In  this,  as  was  well,  they  proceeded  cautiously.  Six 
years  were  spent  in  deliberations  and  arrange¬ 
ments.  On  the  31st  of  December,  1600,  a  charter 
was  conferred  by  Queen  Elizabeth  upon  the  East 
India  Company,  consisting  of  two  hundred  and 
fifteen  members,  who  included  some  noblemen 


' 


. 


Smythe  in  Trouble.  103 

and  courtiers,  as  well  as  all  the  leading  merchants 
of  London. 

Of  this  company  Thomas  Smythe,  having  been 
one  of  the  most  active  in  its  formation,  was  ap¬ 
pointed  governor.  Through  a  curious  adventure, 
however,  he  was  removed  from  the  office  in  the 
following  April.  In  the  autumn  of  1600  he  had 
been  made  Sheriff  of  London,  and  as  sheriff  he 
had  to  take  account  of  a  strange  episode  in  Lon¬ 
don  history.  The  famous  Earl  of  Essex,  having 
for  many  years  been  the  principal  favorite  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  had  in  1599  been  made  by  her 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland.  He  had  misused  the 
powers  committed  to  him,  had  been  recalled  and 
thrown  into  prison  as  a  traitor,  and,  though  soon 
released,  had  not  succeeded  in  winning  back  the 
favor  of  the  Queen.  In  despair  thereat,  he  con¬ 
ceived  a  foolish  plan  of  insurrection  in  February, 
1601,  one  inducement  being  a  pretended  message 
from  Sheriff  Smythe  to  the  effect  that,  if  he  would 
come  into  the  city,  a  thousand  trained-band  men 
would  be  ready  to  meet  him  and  enable  him  to 
seize  the  Tower,  whence  he  could  dictate  terms  to 
the  Queen. 

Accordingly,  on  the  morning  of  Sunday  the  8th 
of  January,  the  earl,  attended  by  a  few  crazy  friends 
and  a  silly  crowd,  proceeded  from  his  house  in  the 
Strand  into  the  city,  and  made  his  way  to  Smythe’s 
house  at  the  corner  of  Fenchurch  Street.  There 
he  found  none  of  the  trained  band  whose  support 
he  counted  on,  and  learned  that  Smythe  himself,  on 


104 


Smythe  in  Favor. 


hearing  of  his  approach,  had  given  information  Jo 
the  Lord  Mayor.  He  therefore  went  home  discon¬ 
solate,  to  be  speedily  taken  prisoner,  brought  to 
trial,  and  executed  for  high  treason  on  the  25th  of 
February. 

There  is  nothing  to  show  that  Sheriff  Smythe 
was  in  any  way  an  accomplice  in  this  foolish  plot. 
His  name  appears  to  have  been  used  for  a  wicked 
hoax,  intended  to  tempt  the  Earl  of  Essex  to  his 
own  ruin.  But  a  certain  amount  of  suspicion  fell 
upon  him.  He  was  committed  to  the  Tower,  and 
there  detained  for  about  five  months  before  the  case 
could  be  fully  investigated  and  he  be  honorably 
acquitted. 

In  the  mean  while  the  young  East  India  Com¬ 
pany  could  not  get  on  without  a  governor.  On 
the  1  ith  of  April  it  was  decided  “  that  the  election 
of  another  governor  be  proceeded  with,  because  the 
company  can  not  endure  the  delay  and  expectation 
of  Thomas  Smythe’s  being  discharged  from  his 
imprisonment,”  and  Alderman  Watts  was  chosen 
in  his  place.  As  some  compensation,  it  would 
seem,  for  the  hard  usage  to  which  he  had  been  ex¬ 
posed,  Queen  Elizabeth  sent  the  sheriff  on  a  diplo¬ 
matic  mission  to  Russia.  But  his  connection  with 
the  East  India  Company  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  resumed  for  more  than  two  years. 

In  1603,  immediately  after  the  accession  of 
James  I.,  he  was  summoned  to  Court,  and  knight¬ 
ed  by  the  new  King.  In  1604  he  was  again  ap¬ 
pointed  Governor  of  the  East  India  Company,  and 


The  East  "India  Company.  105 

the  appointment  was  renewed  in  1605,  and,  with 
a  gap  of  a  year,  in  1607,  when  he  consented  to 
take  office  “with  the  promise  that  the  company 
expect  no  further  of  him  at  courts  or  otherwise 
than  his  other  affairs  will  permit.”  He  was  again 
chosen  in  1608,  and  in  1609,  when  he  was  chiefly 
instrumental  in  procuring  from  King  James  a  new 
and  improved  charter  for  the  company.  For  that 
service,  and  for  all  the  services  that  preceded  it, 
he  was  “gratified  with  ^500”  as  a  token  of  his 
friends’  esteem.  But  in  princely  way  he  objected 
to  take  this  gift,  and  at  length  only  consented  to 
receive  half  the  amount.  “  The  residue,”  it  is  said, 
“  his  worship  kindly  yielded  to  take.”  Except 
during  two  or  three  years,  when  “  his  other  affairs  ” 
forced  him  to  decline  the  honor,  he  seems  to  have 
vheld  the  office  steadily  until  his  final  retirement 
from  commercial  life. 

During  his  lifetime,  indeed,  and  whether  in  act¬ 
ual  office  or  not,  Sir  Thomas  Smythe  was  the  real 
master  of  the  East  India  Company.  All  its  mem¬ 
bers  regarded  him  as  their  head  and  champion; 
all  its  enemies  considered  him  their  great  oppo¬ 
nent  ;  and  all  its  successes  were  mainly  attributed 
to  his  wisdom  and  energy. 

These  successes  were  great.  The  first  expedi¬ 
tion  was  composed  of  four  stout  ships,  containing 
nearly  five  hundred  men,  which  sailed  out  of  Tor- 
bay  on  the  20th  of  April,  under  the  leadership  of 
Captain  Lancaster.  He  took  with  him  several 
copies  of  a  letter  from  Queen  Elizabeth,  one  of 


106  The  First  Expeditmi  of 

which  was  to  be  delivered  to  each  of  the  various 
kings  and  potentates  whom  he  might  visit  in  the 
East.  Therein  the  Queen  represented  that,  God 
having  ordained  that  no  place  should  enjoy  all 
the  things  appertaining  to  man’s  use,  but  that  one 
country  should  have  need  of  another,  and  that  thus 
there  should  be  commerce  and  interchange  of 
friendship  between  the  people  of  remote  districts, 
she  had  sent  out  these  her  subjects  to  visit  the  ter¬ 
ritories  of  the  East,  and  to  offer  trade  according  to 
the  usage  of  merchants.  She  promised  that  they 
should  behave  honorably,  and  therefore  asked  that 
they  might  be  kindly  entertained,  and  be  allowed 
both  to  buy  and  sell  in  the  various  countries,  and 
to  learn  the  languages  and  follow  the  fashions  of 
each. 

The  incidents  of  this  first  expedition  of  the  „ 
great  East  India  Company  are  curious.  Lancas¬ 
ter  sailed  easily,  though  very  slowly  as  compared 
with  modern  rates  of  travelling,  down  to  the  Equa¬ 
tor.  There  he  was  becalmed  for  some  weeks,  and 
the  crew  would  have  been  short  of  provisions  had 
they  not,  on  the  21st  of  June,  fallen  in  with  a  Por¬ 
tuguese  carrack,  which  was  soon  captured  and  de¬ 
spoiled  of  a  goodly  store  of  wine,  oil,  and  meal. 
Much  sickness  befell  them  as  they  slowly  sailed 
toward  the  Cape,  and  they  were  obliged  to  put  in 
Saldanha  Bay  early  in  August.  There  Lancaster 
built  huts  for  the  sick,  and  conversed  with  the  peo¬ 
ple  in  “  the  cattle’s  tongue,  which,”  he  says,  “  was 
never  changed  at  the  confusion  of  Babel that  is, 


The  East  India  Company.  107 

he  shouted  “  moo  ”  and  “  baa,”  to  show  that  he 
wanted  to  buy  cows  and  sheep.  Keeping  on  good 
terms  with  the  Caffres,  he  procured  more  than  a 
thousand  sheep  and  about  fifty  oxen,  a  piece  of  iron 
six  inches  long  being  the  price  paid  for  each  of  the 
former,  and  one  eight  inches  long  for  each  of  the 
latter.  The  Caffres  were  anxious  to  sell  him  land 
as  well,  and  to  induce  him  to  settle  among  them ; 
but  two  months’  careful  management  served  to  re¬ 
store  the  sick  men  to  health,  and,  on  the  29th  of 
October,  he  put  to  sea  again.  The  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  was  doubled  on  the  1st  of  November,  and 
the  stormy  seas  to  the  east  of  it  were  traversed 
without  damage.  Fresh  sickness  among  the  crews 
made  necessary  another  and  longer  delay,  appar¬ 
ently  on  the  coast  of  Madagascar.  Thence  they 
sailed  across  the  Indian  Ocean,  leaving  India  con¬ 
siderably  to  the  north.  Halting  at  an  island  near 
Sumatra,  they  saw  what  they  supposed  to  be  a  re¬ 
ligious  service  of  the  natives,  in  which  the  priests, 
wearing  horns  and  tails  like  devils,  appeared  to  be 
worshiping  the  prince  of  the  devils.  They  also 
reported  that  they  saw  a  wonderful  tree,  growing 
from  a  worm  which  gradually  dies  as  the  tree 
grows,  the  branches  of  the  tree  itself,  when  cut  off 
and  dried,  being  turned  into  white  coral ! 

Sumatra  was  reached  on  the  2d  of  June,  1602, 
more  than  thirteen  months  after  the  departure  from 
England.  Lancaster  was  generously  received  by 
the  king  of  the  island,  who  sent  a  guard  of  honor, 
including  six  elephants,  to  conduct  him  to  court. 


io8  Trading  and  Treaties. 

He  presented  Queen  Elizabeth’s  letter  and  pres¬ 
ents  of  looking-glasses  and  other  articles,  and  was 
entertained  at  a  feast,  in  which  all  the  dishes  used 
were  of  gold  and  other  costly  metal.  After  that 
he  bought  a  good  deal  of  pepper,  cinnamon,  and 
cloves,  the  chief  produce  of  the  island.  Then  he 
passed  onto  Bantam,  and  formed  an  alliance  with 
its  king,  and  exchanged  English  goods  for  the  pep¬ 
per  and  spices  of  the  natives.  Some  of  these  na¬ 
tives  proved  thievish,  but  Lancaster  was  authorized 
to  kill  any  one  he  might  find  about  his  house  at 
night-time,  and,  it  is  said,  “  after  thus  killing  four 
or  five,  they  lived  in  peace.”. 

At  Bantam  the  ships  were  loaded  with  the  com¬ 
modities  they  were  sent  out  to  buy,  and  Lancaster, 
having  made  treaties  with  the  people  of  two  large 
islands  of  the  East  Indies,  started  on  his  home¬ 
ward  voyage  on  the  20th  of  February.  This  was 
attended  with  considerable  trouble,  though  hardly 
greater  than  was  usual  to  the  unwieldy  vessels  of 
those  times.  A  furious  storm  did  damage,  near  to 
Sumatra,  which  could  never  be  repaired ;  and  two 
months  afterward,  when  they  were  near  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope,  Lancaster’s  own  ship  was  nearly 
wrecked  by  another  storm  that  caused  much  de¬ 
lay,  as  they  had  to  push  slowly  on  to  St.  Helena 
before  the  injuries  could  be  repaired.  They  en¬ 
tered  the  English  Channel,  having  been  absent 
nearly  two  years  and  a  half,  on  the  1  ith  of  Septem¬ 
ber,  1603,  bringing  home  a  rich  store  of  wealth  for 
their  employers,  including  a  ruby  ring  and  two 


The  East  India  Company.  109 

dresses  embroidered  with  gold,  and  placed  in  a  box 
of  purple  china,  as  a  present  from  the  King  of  Su¬ 
matra  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  had  died  in  the 
interval. 

That  first  voyage  may  be  taken  as  an  illustra¬ 
tion  of  the  character  of  all  the  early  expeditions  of 
the  East  India  Company.  These  expeditions  fol¬ 
lowed  one  another  in  quick  succession ;  in  each 
some  fresh  part  of  the  East  Indies  was  visited  and 
brought  into  commercial  relations  with  England  ; 
and,  in  spite  of  occasional  shipwrecks  and  other 
misfortunes,  nearly  all  the  expeditions  were  very 
profitable.  Brave  sailors  laid  the  small  founda¬ 
tions  of  the  vast  trade  that  has  subsequently  been 
established ;  and  Sir  Thomas  Smythe  and  his  fel¬ 
low-merchants  put  their  wits  to  good  use  in  devis¬ 
ing  ways  and  means  for  promoting  the  great  work. 

At  first  the  East  India  Company,  hardly  a  com¬ 
pany  at  all,  according  to  the  modern  acceptation 
of  the  word,  was  little  more  than  a  gathering  of  in¬ 
dependent  traders,  who  speculated  as  much  or  as 
little  as  they  chose  on  each  separate  voyage,  and 
only  clubbed  together,  under  the  direction  of  man¬ 
agers  chosen  from  themselves,  in  order  that  the  ex¬ 
peditions  might  be  large  enough,  and  sufficiently 
protected,  to  be  conducted  safely  and  with  profit. 
A  step  in  advance  of  this  was  made  in  May,  1609, 
when,  chiefly  through  Sir  Thomas  Smythe’s  influ¬ 
ence,  in  lieu  of  the  privileges  conferred  by  Queen 
Elizabeth,  a  new  charter  was  obtained  from  James 
I.,  conferring  upon  the  company  “  the  whole  en- 


I  IO 


Smy ike’s  Activity . 


tire  and  only  trade  and  traffic  to  the  East  Indies  ” 
forever  and  a  day,  no  one  being  allowed  to  have 
any  share  in  that  branch  of  commerce  without 
license  from  the  company,  and  all  the  members 
being  bound  by  oath  “  to  be  good  and  true  to  the 
King,  and  faithful  and  assistant  to  the  company, 
having  no  singular  regard  to  themselves  in  hurt  or 
prejudice  of  the  said  fellowship.” 

Encouraged  by  this,  the  company  resolved  on  a 
larger  enterprise  than  had  yet  been  undertaken. 
At  its  first  public  dinner,  suggested  by  a  present  of 
a  brace  of  bucks  from  the  Earl  of  Southampton,  “  to 
make  merry  withal,”  as  he  said,  “  in  regard  of  their 
kindness  in  accepting  him  of  their  company,”  and 
given  at  Sir  Thomas  Smythe’s  great  house  in  Phil- 
pot  Lane,  it  was  resolved  that  two  new  ships  should 
be  built  of  a  sort  specially  adapted  for  the  busi¬ 
ness,  and  they  were  ready  in  less  than  six  months. 

The  larger  of  the  two  was  the  largest  English 
merchant  ship  yet  built,  its  burden  being,  according 
to  different  accounts,  either  ten,  eleven,  or  twelve 
hundred  pounds.  It  was  launched  at  Deptford  on 
the  39th  of  December,  in  the  presence  of  James 
I.,  Queen  Anne,  and  the  young  Prince  Henry,  the 
amiable  heir  to  the  throne,  who  died  before  his  fa¬ 
ther.  After  inspecting  the  fine  vessel,  the  royal 
family  were  royally  banqueted  in  the  chief  cabin, 
while  the  courtiers  were  entertained  at  a  long  ta¬ 
ble  on  the  half-deck,  “  plentifully  served  with  deli¬ 
cacies  served  in  fine  china  dishes  ”  —  among  the 
rarest  and  most  prized  of  the  company’s  importa- 


The  Trade's •  Increase. 


iii 


tions — “  all  which  were  freely  permitted  to  be  car¬ 
ried  away  by  all  persons.”  The  feast  being  over, 
the  great  ship  was  launched.  King  James  chris¬ 
tened  her  by  the  name  of  The  Trade's  Increase , 
and,  while  the  salutes  were  being  fired,  says  an 
eye-witness,  “  graced  Sir  Thomas  Smythe  with  a 
chain,  in  manner  of  a  collar,  worth  better  than 
£ 200 ,  with  his  picture  hanging  at  it,  and  put  it 
about  his  neck  with  his  own  hands.” 

That  done,  and  ,£82,000  having  been  expended 
in  cargoes  and  shipping  expenses,  the  big  ship,  at¬ 
tended  by  two  smaller  ones,  set  out  in  March,  1610, 
under  the  command  of  Sir  Henry  Middleton,  who, 
after  Sir  James  Lancaster,  was  the  first  great  naval 
commander  of  the  East  India  Company’s  fleets. 
Hitherto  the  expeditions  had  been  to  Sumatra  and 
the  other  great  islands  lying  north-east  of  the  In¬ 
dian  continent.  Middleton  was  now  instructed 
to  find  his  chief  business  in  trading  with  the  peo¬ 
ple  on  the  coasts  of  the  Red  Sea,  in  Arabia,  along 
the  Persian  Gulf,  and  on  the  north-western  part  of 
India  itself. 

A  prosperous  voyage  was  made  round  the  Cape, 
and  up  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa,  as  far  as  Mocha, 
which  Middleton  reached  early  in  November.  Great 
show  of  friendship  came  from  the  governor  of  the 
Arabian  town,  and  the  only  difficulty  which  the  En¬ 
glish  felt  was  in  the  want  of  a  table  on  which  to  ex¬ 
hibit  the  cloths  and  other  commodities  that  they 
had  brought  for  sale,  until  Middleton  had  been  en¬ 
ticed  to  take  up  his  residence  in  Mocha,  and  bring 


1 1  2 


An  Unfortunate  Voyage. 


with  him  a  quantity  of  his  most  valuable  goods. 
No  sooner  was  he  on  shore,  however,  than  his  dep¬ 
uties  on  shipboard  began  to  misconduct  themselves, 
and  give  some  excuse  for  the  rough  conduct  that  the 
natives  had  been  treacherously  contriving.  “  One 
grief  on  the  neck  of  another,”  wrote  Middleton, 
“  makes  a  burden  of  my  life,  and  therefore  makes 
me  write  I  scarce  know  what.”  He  and  fifty-one 
companions  who  were  with  him  had  plenty  of  time 
for  writing  during  the  six  months,  from  November, 
1610,  to  May,  1611,  of  their  captivity  among  the 
Moslems.  One  of  the  number,  William  Pember¬ 
ton,  managed  to  run  away,  “  having  taken  a  surfeit 
of  captivity  under  these  heathen  tyrants,”  as  he 
said.  Wandering  about  on  the  shore,  he  found  an 
old  canoe,  tied  his  shirt  to  a  pole  by  help  of  his 
garters,  and  so,  between  paddling  and  sailing, 
made  his  way  to  the  ship,  half  dead  from  toil  and 
wet  and  want  of  food.  Several  times  he  wrote  to 
his  master,  urging  him  to  procure  some  native 
clothing,  cut  off  his  hair,  besmear  his  face,  and 
steal  out  of  the  town  with  a  burden  on  his  back. 
If  he  would  do  that,  said  Pemberton,  they  would 
bring  a  boat  and  rescue  him.  But  Middleton  did 
not  like  the  trick,  especially  as  he  would  have  left 
his  comrades  in  the  lurch.  He  would  neither  lis¬ 
ten  to  Pemberton’s  assurance  that  “  in  this  hea¬ 
thenish  and  barbarous  place  they  were  void  of  all 
gentle  kind  of  humanity,”  and  therefore  must  be 
met  by  subterfuge,  nor  consent  to  the  proposal  of 
his  chief  deputy,  Captain  Downton,  that  the  En- 


A  Tide  of  Good-Fortune.  113 

glish  should  make  a  forcible  entry  into  Mocha,  and 
so  set  him  free.  At  last,  however,  he  adopted  both 
expedients.  He  made  his  escape,  and  partly  by 
threatening  to  attack  the  town,  and  partly  by  prom¬ 
ising  that  neither  he  nor  any  other  Englishman 
should  in  future  visit  those  parts,  fie  then  succeed¬ 
ed  in  procuring  the  release  of  his  companions. 

These  troubles  caused  to  the  English,  besides 
the  deaths,  by  actual  murder  or  cruel  captivity,  of 
several  good  men,  a  loss  of  ,£26,000,  and  a  waste 
of  eleven  months’  time.  Then  came  a  tide  of  bet¬ 
ter  fortune.  Quitting  the  Red  Sea,  Middleton 
made  for  Surat,  and,  reaching  it  in  October,  found 
a  Portuguese  squadron  of  twenty  armed  vessels 
stationed  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  on  purpose  to 
prevent  the  landing  of  any  rival  traders.  The 
Portuguese  admiral  sent  to  say  that,  if  the  English 
had  authority  from  their  sovereign,  they  might  en¬ 
ter  ;  otherwise,  the  sooner  they  went  away  the  bet¬ 
ter  would  be  their  chance  of  life.  Sir  Henry  an¬ 
swered  that  he  bore  credentials  from  the  King  of 
England  to  the  great  Mogul,  whose  territory  was 
free  to  all  people,  and  who  owed  no  vassalage  to 
the  Portuguese ;  that  he  meant  no  harm  to  the 
merchants  of  other  nations,  but  that  he  certainly 
intended  to  maintain  the  rights  of  his  own.  For 
a  time  he  did  his  best  to  carry  on  a  peaceful  traf¬ 
fic  with  the  natives  ;  but  finding  himself  thwarted 
therein,  he  boldly  set  his  three  vessels  to  attack 
the  enemy’s  twenty.  He  had  such  success  thgt 
one  of  the  Portuguese  ships  was  sunk,  another  fell 

H 


1 14  The  End  of  the  Trade's  Increase . 

into  his  hands  with  a  rich  store  of  Indian  goods, 
and  the  others  were  put  to  flight.  The  coast  be¬ 
ing  thus  clear,  he  proceeded  to  make  a  treaty  with 
the  natives,  and  to  buy  from  them  all  the  useful 
commodities  that  he  could  find  in  the  place. 

Good-fortune,  however,  was  not  to  remain  with 
the  ill-named  Trade's  Increase  or  her  commander. 
Meeting  some  other  ships  sent  out  from  England 
by  the  East  India  Company,  Middleton  returned 
to  Mocha,  and  in  excusable  violation  of  his  prom¬ 
ise  to  its  treacherous  governor  and  people,  set  him¬ 
self  to  punish  them  for  the  cruelties  to  which  he 
and  his  men  had  been  subjected  a  year  before. 
Then  he  re-crossed  the  Indian  Ocean,  with  a  view 
of  finishing  his  trading  exploits  at  Bantam.  That 
he  did,  though  far  otherwise  than  he  intended. 
The  Trade's  I/icrease  struck  on  a  rock  during  the 
voyage,  and  was  hardly  able  to  reach  its  destina¬ 
tion,  and  the  two  smaller  vessels  were  considerably 
the  worse  for  two  years’  tossing  about.  One  of 
them  was  sent  to  England  in  the  spring  of  1613, 
while  Middleton  and  the  rest  took  up  their  resi¬ 
dence  in  what  is  called  “  his  little  new-built  village 
of  Pullopenjaun,”  not  far  from  Bantam.  “  He  that 
escapes  disease,”  Downton  had  written,  “  from  that 
stinking  stew  of  the  Chinese  part  of  Bantam  must 
be  of  a  strong  constitution  of  body.”  Middleton’s 
men  died,  one  by  one,  and  he  himself  sank  under 
a  sickness  that  had  been  oppressing  him  for  months, 
somewhere  near  the  end  of  1613.  Shortly  be¬ 
fore  that,  the  Trade's  Increase ,  which  he  had  been 


William  Adams  i?i  Japan.  .  115 

waiting  to  repair  with  material  from  England,  had 
been  beaten  to  pieces  by  the  waves— “  which  is  a 
great  pity,”  said  a  gossiping  letter-writer  of  the 
time,  “  being  the  goodliest  ship  of  England,  and 
never  made  voyage  before.”  Far  better  would  it 
have  been,  however,  for  a  score  of  such  goodly 
ships  to  have  been  wasted,  than  that  England  and 
the  East  India  Company  should  lose,  in  the  prime 
of  life,  a  man  so  valiant  and  skillful  as  Sir  Henry 
Middleton,  “  the  thrice-worthy  general,”  as  he  was 
termed  by  a  contemporary  statesman,  “  who  laid 
the  foundation  of  our  long -desired  Cambaya 
trade.” 

Yet  the  Cambaya,  or  Indian,  trade  continued 
to  thrive  famously.  A  good  beginning  had  been 
made  in  several  parts  of  the  East  Indies.  Sir 
Thomas  S  my  the  tried  hard  to  extend  it  to  a  quar¬ 
ter  which  is  only  now  commencing  to  be  open  to 
English  commerce.  His  coadjutor  in  this  was 
William  Adams,  famous  as  the  first  Englishman 
who  went  to  Japan.  Adams  accompanied  a  Dutch 
expedition  as  pilot-major  in  1598.  After  two  years 
of  wonderful  adventure  on  the  sea,  he  reached 
Japan  in  1600.  He  was  favored  by  its  emperor, 
for  whom  he  built  ships,  and  to  whom  he  gave 
instruction  in  mathematics  and  other  branches  of 
European  knowledge.  In  1611  he  wrote  a  letter 
to  his  “  unknown  friends  and  countrymen,”  which 
found  its  way  to  Sir  Thomas  Smythe,  as  Governor 
of  the  East  India  Company,  who,  in  1612,  wrote 
to  Adams,  offering  to  send  ships  to  trade  with  J a- 


n6  The  East  I?idia  Company . 

pan.  Adams  answered,  that  in  Japan  Englishmen 
would  be  “  as  welcome  and  free  as  in  the  river  of 
London,”  and  that  they  would  find  immense  prof¬ 
it  from  trading  thither.  In  the  same  letter  he 
thanked  Sir  Thomas  Smythe  “  for  lending  his  wife 
£ 20 .”  Dealings  with  Japan  were  accordingly  at¬ 
tempted  ;  but  the  arrogance  of  the  English  .gave 
offense  to  the  haughty  Japanese,  and  they  were 
banished  from  the  island. 

In  the  East  Indies  proper,  however,  there  was 
no  such  mischance.  Great  success  attended  the 
company’s  enterprises,  the  merit  of  which  must 
be  partly  assigned  to  Sir  Thomas  Smythe.  Noth¬ 
ing  seems  to  have  been  done  without  his  advice, 
and  that  advice  appears  to  have  been  wonderfully 
sensible  and  comprehensive.  He  was  consulted 
as  to  the  things  to  be  bought,  and  the  things  to 
be  sold,  the  men  to  be  admitted  into  the  company 
as  traders,  and  the  men  to  be  employed  as  agents  ; 
and  in  the  character  and  conduct  of  these  agents 
he  took  a  fatherly  interest.  In  February,  1614, 
for  instance,  we  find  him  assembling  all  the  com¬ 
pany’s  factors,  then  in  London,  and  about  to  pro¬ 
ceed  to  the  East,  and  exhorting  them  conscientious¬ 
ly  to  discharge  their  duties.  He  besought  them 
to  avoid  the  example  of  some  tyrannical  and  self- 
seeking  persons  who  had  lately  been  in  India,  and 
urged  them  “  to  be  the  more  respective,  and  shun 
all  sin  and  evil  behavior,  that  the  heathen  might 
take  no  advantage  to  blaspheme  our  religion  by 
the  abuses  and  ungodly  behavior  of  our  men.”  He 


The  Zeal  of  its  Governor.  117 

begged  them  to  abstain  from  all  frauds  upon  the 
natives,  or  any  thing  that  could  damage  the  com¬ 
pany,  “  by  making  the  people  hate  and  detest  us 
before  we  be  settled  amongst  them,”  and  assured 
them  of  the  company’s  desire  to  furnish  them 
with  every  thing  needful  to  their  spiritual  comfort 
and.  the  health  of  their  bodies,  “  also  books  of 
divinity  for  the  soul,  and  history  to  instruct  the 
mind.” 

Not  content  with  establishing  trading  relations 
with  the  people  of  the  East  Indian  Islands  and  the 
coast  towns  or  the  mainland  of  India,  Sir  Thom¬ 
as  Smythe  determined  to  make  a  formal  treaty  with 
the  great  Mogul.  With  that  view  he  sent  one  Wil¬ 
liam  Edwardes  on  a  diplomatic  mission  to  Persia 
in  1614.  Edwardes  took  with  him  a  curious  token 
of  the  great  merchant’s  favor.  “  I  presented  the 
Mogul  with  your  worship’s  picture,”  he  wrote, 
“  which  he  esteemed  so  well  for  the  workmanship,, 
that  the  day  after  he  sent  for  all  his  painters  in 
public  to  see  the  same,  who  did  admire  it,  and 
confessed  that  none  of  them  could  any  thing  near 
imitate  it,  which  makes  him  prize  it  above  all  the 
rest,  and  esteem  it  for  a  jewel.” 

Edwardes  so  far  succeeded  with  the  great  Mo¬ 
gul,  that  Sir  Thomas  Smythe  induced  King  James 
to  send  a  famous  ambassador  to  the  great  Mogul, 
in  the  person  of  Sir  Thomas  Roe,  “  he  being  a  gen¬ 
tleman  of  pregnant  understanding,  well-spoken, 
learned,  industrious,  of  comely  personage,  and  one 
of  whom  there  were  great  hopes  that  he  might  work 


1 1 8  The  East  India  Company. 

much  good  for  the  company.’1  Sir  Thomas  Roe 
did  work  much  good.  He  formed  an  alliance  with 
the  great  Mohammedan  emperor  of  the  East,  one 
of  the  race  of  mighty  potentates  who  ruled  all  the 
north  of  India,  and  the  vast  districts  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Himalayas,  and  thus  surely  laid  the 
foundations  of  that  intercourse  between  England 
and  India  which  was  to  end  after  two  centuries  of 
trading  and  fighting,  in  India  becoming  the  prop¬ 
erty  of  England. 

For  all  this,  not  a  little  of  the  praise  belongs  to 
Sir  Thomas  Smythe.  To  the  end  of  his  life  he 
was  the  great  champion  and  promoter  of  the  East 
India  Company’s  interests,  his  house  in  Philpot 
Lane  being  the  chief  office  of  the  association,  until 
it  was  powerful  enough,  after  his  death,  to  set  up 
the  quaint  East  India  House  in  Leadenhall  Street, 
which  was  its  place  of  business  until  1726,  when  a 
new  building  was  erected,  to  be  itself  replaced  in 
T799  by  the  more  imposing  structure  which  was 
pulled  down  in  1862,  when  the  government  of  India 
passed  from  the  East  India  Company  to  the  En¬ 
glish  Crown. 

The  success  of  the  company  had  a  wonderful 
effect  on  English  trade,  causing  all  sorts  of  new 
commodities  to  be  brought  into  English  use,  and 
provoking  much  jealousy  in  other  trades  and  trad¬ 
ing  companies,  which  fancied  that  thus  their  own 
callings  were  being  injured.  The  jealousy  was 
uttered  in  sober  treatises,  as  well  as  in  such  street 
ballads  as  this : 


Smyth  Js  other  Occupations .  12 1 

“  Our  ladies  all  were  set  a-gadding ; 

After  these  toys  they  ran  a-madding  ; 

And  nothing  then  would  please  their  fancies, 

Nor  dolls,  nor  Joans,  nor  lovely  Nancies, 

Unless  it  was  of  India’s  making  ; 

And  if  ’twas  so,  ’twas  wondrous  taking. 

“Tell  ’em  the  following  of  such  fashion 
Would  beggar  and  undo  the  nation, 

And  ruin  all  our  neighboring  poor, 

That  must,  or  starve,  or  beg  at  door, 

They’d  not  all  regard  your  story, 

But  in  their  painted  garments  glory.” 

Among  all  the  rest  of  his  work  Sir  Thomas  Smythe 
had  at  Court,  in  Parliament,  among  merchants, 
and  among  gentlefolk,  to  defend  the  East  India 
Company  from  such  charges,  and  to  prove  that,  in¬ 
stead  of  ruining  the  nation,  and  reducing  the  poor 
to  beggary  and  starvation,  it  was  contributing 
mightily  to  the  wealth  of  England,  and  the  well¬ 
being  of  all  classes  of  its  people.  To  the  last  he 
worked  zealously  for  the  company,  and  interested 
himself  in  little  things  as  well  as  great.  In  1618 
occurred  a  curious  illustration  of  the  way  in  which 
he  made  good  use  of  his  position.  Two  boys  hav¬ 
ing  stolen  a  hat  worth  six  shillings,  were,  according 
to  the  barbarous  law  of  that  time,  sentenced  to  be 
hanged  for  their  offense.  The  chief  culprit  was 
accordingly  executed.  His  accomplice  was  par¬ 
doned  at  Sir  Thomas  Smythe’s  intercession,  and 
on  his  promise  to  put  him  in  the  way  of  reforma¬ 
tion  by  sending  him  to  India ;  and  this  he  did. 

In  taking  the  lead  in  the  wonderful  trading 


122 


77/e  Virginia  Company. 


movement  from  which  our  vast  Indian  empire  lias 
been  developed,  however,  Sir  Thomas  Smythe  only 
did  part  of  the  work  for  which  posterity  must  hon¬ 
or  him  as  almost  the  greatest  of  all  the  great  mer¬ 
chant  princes  who  have  done  so  much  for  the  pros¬ 
perity  of  England.  He  also  took  the  lead,  under 
James  I.,  in  another  wonderful  trading  movement, 
out  of  which  the  establishment  of  our  North  Amer¬ 
ican  and  West  Indian  colonies,  and  of  the  stupen¬ 
dous  empire  of  the  United  States  has  resulted. 

This  movement  had  been  begun  in  Queen  Eliz¬ 
abeth’s  reign.  Before  India  was  thought  of  as  a 
resort  of  English  commerce,  efforts  had  been  made 
by  Englishmen  to  plant  trade  and  government  in 
America.  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  had  died  in  no¬ 
bly  trying,  though  without  success,  to  found  a  colo¬ 
ny  in  Newfoundland  ;  and  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  had 
spent  many  years  in  attempting  to  build  up  his 
colony  of  Virginia,  in  the  district  now  known  as 
North  Carolina. 

Raleigh’s  project,  in  his  own  hands,  led  only  to 
the  loss  of  many  lives  and  of  much  money.  But 
in  1606  it  was  taken  up  by  others,  who  sent  out  a 
small  party  of  adventurers  under  Captain  Newport. 
Of  these  adventurers  the  most  notable  was  a  John 
Smith,  who  had  proved  his  wild  valor  and  endless 
resource  in  previous  fighting  with  the  Turks.  He 
showed  his  countrymen  how  to  build  and  sow  and 
hunt  in  Virginia.  On  one  occasion,  having  wan¬ 
dered  in  a  canoe  far  up  the  Chickahominy,  he  was 
taken  prisoner  by  the  Indians,  and  ordered  to  exe- 


Smythes  Ma?iagcmcnt  of  Virginia.  125 

cution  by  their  chief,  Powhatan.  But  Powhatan’s 
little  daughter,  Pocahontas,  took  a  strange  fancy  to 
the  white  man.  She  threw  her  arms  round  his 
neck,  and  made  it  impossible  to  kill  him  without 
first  taking  her  life.  Thereby  her  father’s  heart 
was  touched.  Smith  was  spared.  His  quick  wit 
and  good-nature  soon  made  the  Indians  very  friend¬ 
ly  to  him,  and  in  this  way  the  first  solid  settlement 
of  the  English  in  America  was  greatly  helped. 

It  is  not  known  what  share  Sir  Thomas  Smythe 
had  in  sending  out  the  expedition  under  Captain 
Newport ;  but  it  must  have  been  considerable,  as 
for  the  next  twelve  years  he  was  known  as  the  gov¬ 
ernor  and  absolute  master  of  the  Virginian  colony. 
His  government  was  by  deputy,  he  himself  having 
more  important  and  more  congenial  work  in  fol¬ 
lowing  his  merchant’s  calling  at  home.  In  1609, 
when  a  new  and  more  extended  Virginia  Company 
was  formed,  he  was  its  treasurer  and  guiding  spir¬ 
it.  A  code  of  stringent  rules — called  by  his  ene¬ 
mies  “tyrannical  laws” — for  the  government  of 
the  colony  was  drawn  up  by  him.  The  money  re¬ 
quired  for  sending  out,  nearly  every  year,  fresh 
shiploads  of  colonists  and  goods  was  furnished  by 
him.  The  articles  sent  out  were  chosen  by  hijn, 
and  the  articles  sent  home,  of  which  tobacco 
was  chief,  were  disposed  of  under  his  directions. 
Every  Thursday — during  part  of  the  twelve  years  at 
any  rate,  and  in  the  few  subsequent  years  in  which 
he  continued  to  live  and  work — there  was  a  meet¬ 
ing  at  his  house  in  Philpot  Lane,  to  consider  the 


126  The  Colonization  of  America. 

progress  of  events,  and  to  decide  upon  any  fresh 
action  that  had  to  be  taken. 

Concerning  his  management  of  Virginia  and  its 
affairs,  great  complaints  were  made  by  some  of  the 
colonists  and  their  friends  at  home.  For  some 
years  an  endless  series  of  quarrels  were  referred  to 
King  James  and  his  Council.  A  writer  of  the  time 
said  that  both  Court  and  City  were  divided  into 
Guelph  and  Ghibelline  factions  respecting  Vir¬ 
ginia  ;  and  it  is  not  easy  now  to  say  how  far  each 
party  was  in  the  right.  But  all  that  we  know  of 
Sir  Thomas  Smythe’s  conduct  in  other  relations 
shows  him  to  have  been  wise  and  generous ;  and 
it  is  clear  that,  either  through  him  or  in  spite  of 
him,  the  first  English  colony  in  America  throve  fa¬ 
mously.  In  1616  it  was  reported  to  be  “  in  great 
prosperity  and  peace,”  likely  to  become  “  one  of 
the  goodliest  and  richest  kingdoms  of  the  world.” 

It  did  become,  though  not  a  kingdom,  part  of 
the  goodliest  and  richest  democratic  confederation 
in  the  world.  Virginia  being  prosperous,  other 
colonies,  destined  to  become  members  of  the 
United  States,  were  founded  one  after  another  : 
New  England  in  1620,  Maryland  in  1632,  New 
York  in  1667,  Pennsylvania  in  1681,  and  the  oth¬ 
ers  in  quick  succession.  Sir  Thomas  Smythe  was 
one  of  the  parents  of  all  this  prosperity. 

His  Virginian  and  East  Indian  business,  how¬ 
ever,  did  not  take  up  all  his  time  and  thoughts. 
When  he  gave  up  the  employment,  which  he  inher¬ 
ited  from  his  father,  as  Farmer  of  the  Customs, 


The  Brothers  Myddelto?i. 


127 


does  not  appear.  He  carried  on  to  the  last  the 
general  trade  with  the  Continent,  which  had  been 
his  father’s  chief  occupation.  In  1617,  for  in¬ 
stance,  we  find  him  joining  some  other  merchants 
trading  with  France,  in  a  petition  to  be  allowed- to 
import  French  playing-cards,  which  had  been  pro¬ 
hibited  through  the  influence  of  some  of  James 
Ids  advisers. 

Of  Sir  Thomas  Smythe’s  many  famous  contem¬ 
poraries  in  the  world  of  commerce  none  were  more 
eminent  than  the  brothers  Myddelton.  Sir  Thom¬ 
as  Myddelton,  the  eldest,  was  a  member  of  the 
Grocers-’  Company,  and  his  younger  brother  Rob¬ 
ert  belonged  to  the  Skinners’  Guild.  Both  were 
influential  shareholders  in  the  East  Indian  Com¬ 
pany.  Sir  Hugh  Myddelton,  the  most  illustrious 
of  the  family,  a  member  of  the  Goldsmiths’  Guild, 
did  not  concern  himself  in  East  Indian  trade,  but 
he  worked  zealously  with  Smythe  in  the  advance¬ 
ment  of  commerce  with  the  new  colony  of  Virginia. 

Sir  Hugh  Myddelton  was  more  than  a  gold¬ 
smith  and  an  American  merchant.  His '  fame 
chiefly  rests  upon  the  engineering  skill  and  indom¬ 
itable  perseverance  with  which  he  constructed  the 
New  River,  which  still  supplies  London  with  most 
of  its  water.  “  If  those,”  says  quaint  old  Fuller, 
“  be  recounted  ajnong  David’s  worthies  who,  break¬ 
ing  through  the  army  of  the  Philistines,  fetched 
water  from  the  well  of  Bethlehem  to  satisfy  the 
longing  of  David — founded  more  in  fancy  than  ne¬ 
cessity — how  meritorious  a  work  did  this  worthy 


128 


Sir  Hugh  Myddelton. 


man  perform  who,  to  quench  the  thirst  of  thousands 
in  the  populous  city  of  London,  fetched  water  at 
his  own  cost  more  than  four-and-twenty  miles,  en¬ 
countering  all  the  way  an  army  of  opposition,  grap¬ 
pling  with  hills,  struggling  with  rocks,  fighting  with 


Sir  Hugh  Myddelton. 


forests,  till,  in  defiance  of  difficulties,  he  had 
brought  his  project  to  perfection.” 

That  was  the  nature  of  the  work  done  by  Myd¬ 
delton  between  the  spring  of  1609,  when  the  busi¬ 
ness  was  fairly  entered  upon,  and  the  autumn  of 
1613,  when  it  was  happily  completed.  On  Mich- 


MyddeltoR s  New  River. 


129 


aelmas-day  the  New  River  was  formally  opened  at 
Islington  by  the  Lord  Mayor  and  a  goodly  com¬ 
pany  of  Londoners.  A  curious  picture  of  the  cer¬ 
emony  has  been  preserved,  as  well  as  a  precise 
narrative  of  its  circumstances.  A  speech  in  verse 
was  made  by  one  of  the  company : 

“  Long  have  we  labor’d,  long  desired  and  pray’d 
For  this  great  work’s  perfection  ;  and  by  th’  aid 
Of  heaven  and  good  men’s  wishes,  ’tis  at  length 
Happily  conquer’d  by  cost,  wit,  and  strength, 

After  five  years  of  dear  expense  in  days, 

Travail  and  pains,  besides  the  infinite  ways 
Of  malice,  envy,  false  suggestions, 

Able  to  daunt  the  spirit  of  mighty  ones 
In  wealth  and  courage,  this,  a  work  so  rare, 

Only  by  one  man’s  industry,  cost,  and  care, 

Is  brought  to  blest  effect,  so  much  withstood ; 

His  only  aim,  the  city’s  general  good. 

“  Then  worthy  magistrates,  to  whose  content, 

Next  to  the  State,  all  this  great  care  was  bent, 

And  for  the  public  good  which  grace  requires, 

Your  loves  and  furtherance  chiefly  he  desires 
To  cherish  these  proceedings,  which  may  give 
Courage  to  some  that  may  hereafter  live 
To  practice  deeds  of  goodness  and  of  fame, 

And  gladly  light  their  actions  by  his  name.” 

Then  followed  a  description  of  the  laborers  em¬ 
ployed  upon  the  work  : 

“  First  here’s  the  overseer,  this  tried  man, 

An  ancient  soldier  and  an  artisan  ; 

The  clerk ;  next  him  the  mathematician  ; 

The  master  of  the  timber- work  takes  place 
Next  after  these  ;  the  measurer  in  like  case  ; 
Bricklayer  ;  and  engineer  ;  and  after  those, 

The  borer ;  and  the  pavior  ;  then  it  shows 

I 


130  Sir  Thomas  S?nythe. 

The  laborers  next ;  keeper  of  Amwell  head  ; 

The  walkers  last ;  so  all  their  names  are  read, 

Y et  these  but  parcels  of  six  hundred  more, 

That  at  one  time  have  been  employ’d  before ; 

Yet  these  in  sight,  and  all  the  rest  will  say, 

That  every  week  they  had  their  royal  pay  ! 

— Now  for  the  fruits  then.  Flow  forth,  precious 
spring, 

So  long  and  dearly  sought  for,  and  now  bring 
Comfort  to  all  that  love  thee  ;  loudly  sing, 

And  with  thy  crystal  murmur  struck  together, 

Bid  all  thy  true  well-wishers  welcome  hither  !” 

“  At  which  words,”  the  narrative  concludes,  “  the 
floodgates  were  opened,  the  stream  was  let  into 
the  cistern,  drums  and  trumpets  giving  it  triumph¬ 
ant  welcomes,  and,  for  the  close  of  this  their  hon¬ 
orable  entertainment,  a  peal  of  chambers.” 

Sir  Hugh  Myddelton  lived  on  till  1631,  six 
years  longer  than  Sir  Thomas  Smythe  ;  and  the 
famous  goldsmith  and  the  famous  skinner  did 
much  good  work  in  common  for  London  and  En¬ 
glish  commerce  during  the  ensuing  years.  Sir 
Thomas  Smythe  continued  to  the  last  a  busy  man, 
the  richest  and  shrewdest  merchant  in  England. 
Besides  all  his  trade,  he  was  employed  by  James  I. 
as  a  navy  commissioner,  and  a  sound  adviser  on 
all  matters  affecting  the  well-being  of  the  country. 
He  was  as  rich  as  he  was  useful.  In  1619  a  great 
house  at  Deptford,  in  which  he  had  resided,  was 
burned  down  ;  but  in  the  same  year  his  house  in 
Philpot  Lane  was  found  large  enough  to  lodge  and 
entertain  in  sumptuous  style  a  French  ambassador, 
with  a  hundred  and  twenty  persons  in  his  train. 


His  Benevolence. 


131 

He  also  had  a  great  house  at  Tunbridge,  in 
Kent,  and  there  he  died  in  1625,  about  sixty- five 
years  old.  Besides  many  charities  in  London  and 
elsewhere,  he  endowed  Tunbridge  school.  Among 
his  numerous  bequests,  he  left  funds  for  providing 
a  fourpenny  loaf  apiece  every  week  to  thirty-six 
poor  persons,  and  the  same  number  of  pieces  of 
cloth,  worth  twenty  shillings  each,  to  be  made  into 
winter  garments  for  the  recipients  of  his  charity. 


132 


Sir  Henry  Garway. 


VI. 

SIR  HENRY  GARWAY. 

[1570-1645.] 

ARLY  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  one  John 
Garway  sold  his  estate  in  Sussex  and  settled 
as  a  merchant  in  London.  He  married  the  daugh¬ 
ter  of  Sir  John  Brydges,  who  was  Lord  Mayor 
in  1521 ;  and  his  eldest  son,  Sir  William  Garway, 
inheriting  much  wealth,  became  a  prosperous  mer¬ 
chant.  He  succeeded  Sir  Thomas  Smythe  as 
Chief  Treasurer  of  the  Customs,  and  like  him,  was 
an  enterprising  member  of  the  East  India  Com¬ 
pany.  The  two  friends  died  in  the  same  year, 
Garway  being  eighty-eight  years  old,  and  the  fa¬ 
ther  of  seventeen  children. 

The  eldest  of  his  children,  Henry  Garway,  was 
born  about  1570.  His  father  wisely  sent  him 
about  the  world  to  study  the  commerce  of  various 
nations.  He  thus  became  a  great  merchant.  He 
was  also  a  good  Protestant.  “  I  have  been  in  all 
parts  of  Christendom,”  he  said,  “  and  have  con¬ 
versed  with  Christians  in  Turkey,  and  in  all  the 
reformed  churches  there  is  not  any  thing  more  rev¬ 
erend  than  the  English  Liturgy — not  our  Royal 
Exchange,  nor  the  name  of  Queen  Elizabeth.” 

Henry  Garway  passed  many  years  in  Turkey 
as  a  factor  of  the  Levant  Company,  lately  found 


Prosperity  of  Lon  do?  i  Com?nerce.  133 

ed  by  Sir  Edward  Osborne ;  and  in  or  near  the 
year  1609,  his  age  being  then  forty,  he  settled  in 
London  as  a  Turkey  merchant.  He  was  govern¬ 
or  of  the  Turkey  Company  through  a  great  part  of 
the  stormy  reign  of  Charles  I. 

The  political  storms,  though  disastrous  to  many 
merchants  of  London,  were  hardly  injurious  to 
London  commerce.  It  prospered  in  spite  of  them. 
“  When  I  consider,”  said  Lewis  Roberts,  author  of 
a  “  Merchants’  Map  of  Commerce,”  which  he  ded¬ 
icated  to  Sir  Henry  Garway  in  1638,  “the  true  di¬ 
mensions  of  our  English  traffic,  as  at  this  day  to 
me  it  appears  to  be,  together  with  the  inbred  com¬ 
modities  that  this  island  affords  to  preserve  and 
maintain  the  same,  with  the  industry  of  the  na¬ 
tives  and  the  ability  of  our  navigators,  I  justly  ad¬ 
mire  both  the  height  and  eminence  thereof ;  but 
when,  again,  I  survey  every  kingdom  and  great 
city  of  the  world,  and  every  petty  port  and  creek 
of  the  same,  and  find  in  each  of  these  some  En¬ 
glish  prying  after  the  trade  and  commerce  there¬ 
of,  then  again,  I  am  easily  brought  to  imagine 
either  that  this  great  traffic  of  England  is  at  its 
full  perfection,  or  that  it  aims  higher  than  can 
hitherto  by  any  weak  sight  be  either  seen  or  dis¬ 
cerned.  I  must  confess  England  breeds  in  its 
own  womb  the  principal  supporters  of  its  present 
splendor,  and  nourisheth  with  its  own  milk  the 
commodities  that  give  both  lustre  and  life  to  the 
continuance  of  this  trade,  which  I  pray  may  nei¬ 
ther  ever  decay  nor  yet  have  the  least  diminution. 


*34 


Trade  under  the  /Stuarts. 


But,”  he  added,  in  a  spirit  of  timidity  that  is 
amusing  when  we  compare  the  commerce  of  to¬ 
day  with  that  of  two  hundred  years  ago,  “  England 
being  naturally  seated  in  a  northern  corner  of  the 
world,  and  herein  bending  under  the  weight  of  too 
ponderous  a  burden,  can  not  possibly  always  and 
forever  find  a  vent  for  all  those  commodities  that 
are  seen  to  be  daily  exported  and  brought  within 
the  compass  of  so  narrow  a  circuit,  unless  there 
can  be,  by  the  policy  and  government  of  the 
State,  a  mean  found  out  to  make  this  island  the 
common  emporium  and  staple  of  all  Europe.” 

And  of  Sir  Henry  Garway’s  own  Turkey  Com¬ 
pany,  Lewis  Roberts  said  :  “Not  yearly  but  month¬ 
ly,  nay,  almost  weekly,  their  ships  are  observed  to 
go  to  and  fro,  exporting  hence  the  cloths  of  Suffolk, 
Gloucester,  Worcester,  and  Coventry,  dyed  and 
dressed,  kerseys  of  Hampshire  and  Yorkshire, 
lead,  tin,  and  a  great  quantity  of  Indian  spices,  in¬ 
digo,  and  calicoes  ;  and  in  return  thereof  they  im¬ 
port  from  Turkey  the  raw  silks  of  Persia,  Damas¬ 
cus,  and  Tripoli,  cottons,  and  cotton-yarn  of  Cy¬ 
prus  and  Smyrna,  and  sometimes  the  gems  of  In¬ 
dia,  the  drugs  of  Egypt  and  Arabia,  the  muscatels 
of  Candia,  and  the  currants  and  oils  of  Zante, 
Cephalonia,  and  Morea.” 

By  that  commerce  Sir  Henry  Garway  profited 
very  much  until  he  was  seventy  years  of  age,  and  old 
enough  and  rich  enough  to  keep  aloof  from  the  tur¬ 
moils  then  arising  in  England  through  the  evil  con¬ 
duct  of  Charles  I.,  and  the  growing  love  of  freedom 


Gar  way  a?ui  Gurney.  135 

among  Englishmen.  Garway  had  prospered  under 
Charles  and  his  father,  and  had  no  liking  to  the  new 
views  of  the  Roundheads.  Therefore  he  used  his 
position  as  a  great  London  merchant  and  grandee 
in  attempting  to  suppress  them,  and  in  surrounding 
his  old  age  with  misfortunes. 

This  fate  was  shared  by  -another  famous  mer¬ 
chant  of  that  time,  Sir  Richard  Gurney.  Gurney, 
born  at  Croyden  in  1577,  had  been  apprenticed  to 
a  silk  mercer  in  Cheapside,  who  liked  him  so  well 
that,  at  his  death,  he  bequeathed  to  him  his  sh#p, 
and  a  sum  of  £6000.  Part  of  that  money  he  spent 
in  travelling  through  France  and  Italy,  “  where,” 
says  his  old  biographer,  “  he  improved  himself ; 
and,  by  observing  the  trade  of  the  respective 
marts  as  he  passed,  laid  the  foundation  of  his  fu¬ 
ture  traffic.”  Soon  after  his  return,  being  himself 
“  of  no  great  family,”  he  discreetly  married  into 
“  a  family  at  that  time  commanding  most  of  the 
money,  and,  by  that,  most  of  the  nobility,  gentry, 
and  great  tradesmen  of  England.”  Thereby  he 
became  a  great  merchant  and  a  very  wealthy  man, 
closely  allied  in  fortune  and  misfortune  to  Sir 
Henry  Garway. 

Garway  was  elected  Lord  Mayor  of  London  in 
1639.  As  Lord  Mayor,  in  1640,  he  raised  a  com¬ 
pany  of  troops,  at  the  cost  of  the  city,  and  sent 
them  to  York  for  the  assistance  of  King  Charles, 
in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  most  of  the  corpora¬ 
tion.  He  joined  the  citizens,  however,  in  protest- 
ing  against  the  illegal  modes  adopted  for  raising 


136 


Gur?iey  and  Pym. 


money  by  the  king  and  his  advisers.  At  Lam¬ 
beth  he  was  active  in  suppressing  a  rising  of  the 
people,  though  no  such  feat  of  valor  is  recorded  of 
him  as  of  Sir  Richard  Gurney.  In  this  same  tu¬ 
multuous  year,  it  is  said,  when  Gurney  was  sixty- 
three  years  old,  “  one  night,  with  thirty  or  forty 
lights,  and  a  few  attendants,  he  rushed  suddenly 
out  of  the  house  on  thousands,  with  the  city  sword 
drawn,  who  immediately  retired  to  their  own 
houses  and  gave  over  their  design.” 

•fn  the  autumn  of  1641,  Gurney  was  made  Lord 
Mayor,  and,  in  November,  he  prepared  a  splendjd 
entertainment  for  the  king,  who  came  into  the  city 
to  stir  up  the  loyalty  of  the  merchants  and  ’pren¬ 
tices.  There  was  great  show  of  loyalty  on  Lord 
Mayor’s  day ;  but  the  citizens  of  London,  as  a 
body,  were  stanch  in  their  opposition  to  Charles. 
To  Pym,  Hampden,  and  three  others,  the  famous 
“  five  members,”  they  gave  a  hearty  welcome  in 
the  following  January,  greatly  to  the  indignation 
of  the  Lord  Mayor  and  his  royalist  friends. 

On  the  13th  of  January,  1642,  Pym  made  a 
memorable  speech  to  the  citizens  in  front  of  Guild¬ 
hall.  On  the  17th,  Sir  Henry  Garway  made  a 
speech  hardly  less  memorable,  in  opposition  to 
it.  He  besought  the  citizens  to  defend  the  king, 
and  to  grant  no  supplies  to  the  wicked  men  who 
were  seeking  his  overthrow.  “  These  are  strange 
courses,  my  masters,”  he  exclaimed  ;  “  they  secure 
our  bodies  to  preserve  our  liberty  ;  they  take  away 
our  goods  to  maintain  property  ;  and  what  can 


Mistakc?i  Patriotism. 


137 


we  expect  in  the  end  but  that  they  should  hang 
us  up  to  save  our  lives  ?”  The  worth  of  the  speak¬ 
er,  and  the  eloquence  of  his  speech,  so  told  upon 
the  audience,  that  the  friends  of  liberty  were  full 
of  fear  as  to  its  effect.  “  As  soon  as  it  was  done, 
and  the  great  shout  and  hum  ended,’’  said  one 
who  heard  it,  “  the  Lord  Mayor,  trembling  and 
scarce  able  to  speak,  asked  what  their  resolution 
was  concerning  assisting  the  Parliament  with  mon¬ 
ey  ;  but  the  cry  was  so  great,  ‘  No  money !  no 
money !’  ‘  Peace !  peace !’  that  he  could  not  be 
heard.” 

But  the  speech  was  soon  forgotten,  and  the 
cause  of  freedom  prevailed,  to  the  necessary  inju¬ 
ry  of  all  who,  however  honestly,  stood  in  its  way. 
Sir  Richard  Gurney,  a  few  months  afterward,  was 
deprived  of  his  mayoralty,  thrown  into  the  Tower, 


ed  by  Parliament,  there  kept  a£m|  his 

death  in  1647;  and  Sir  Henry  (^^'^.i^qoqrding 
to  one  of  his  friends,  “  was  ^)ssed,  as  long  as>he 
lived,  from  prison  to  prison,  and  his  estate  convey¬ 


ed  from  one  rebel  to  anothg 


*38 


Sir  Dudley  North, 


VII. 

SIR  DUDLEY  NORTH. 

[1641-1691.] 

HpWO  Roger  Norths,  father  and  son,  were  mer- 
chants  of  some  repute  in  the  time  of  Henry 
VII.  The  son  of  the  second  was  made  Lord 
North,  and  through  five  generations  the  Norths 
were  well-to-do  gentlemen,  soldiers,  and  states¬ 
men,  under  the  Tudors  and  the  Stuarts.  The 
most  influential  of  them  all  was  the  famous  Fran¬ 
cis  North,  Baron  Guilford,  and  Lord  Keeper  of 
the  Great  Seal  under  Charles  II.  and  James  II. 
His  younger  brother  was  Sir  Dudley  North,  a  mer¬ 
chant  of  note,  and  especially  noteworthy  to  us  be¬ 
cause  the  lengthy  memoir  of  him  written  by  an¬ 
other  brother,  Roger  North,  gives  us  very  precise 
information  as  to  the  character,  training,  and  con¬ 
duct  of  an  influential  London  trader  of  the  second 
half  of  the  seventeenth  century.  From  this  amus¬ 
ing  biography  the  following  pages  will  chiefly  be 
extracted. 

Dudley  North  was  born  on  the  16th  of  May, 
1641.  “He  was  a  very  forward  and  beautiful 
child,”  says  his  brother ;  so  forward  that  he  was 
often  in  trouble  through  his  fondness  for  running 
out  into  the  street,  there  to  talk  and  play  with  any 
other  children  he  could  find.  On  one  occasion  he 
was  stolen  by  a  beggar-woman,  and  only  recovered 


Dudley  North' s  Schooling. 


*39 


after  his  clothes  had  been  taken  from  him.  A  sec¬ 
ond  danger  came  to  him  while  the  plague  was  rag¬ 
ing.  He  was  seized  by  the  malady,  and  only 
kept  alive  by  the  tender  nursing  of  his  mother. 
Soon  after  that,  being  designed  for  a  merchant,  he 
was  sent  to  Bury  grammar-school,  in  due  time  to 
be  placed  in  a  writing-school  in  London,  “  to  learn 
good  hands  and  accounts.”  That  he  did  to  his 
parents’  satisfaction ;  but  he  learned  other  things 
not  quite  to  their  liking.  “  One  of  his  capital  en¬ 
tertainments  was  cock-fighting.  If  possible,  he 
procured  a  place  in  the  pit,  where  there  was  splut¬ 
ter  and  noise,  cut  out,  as  it  were,  for  folks  half-mad. 
I  have  heard  him  say,”  reports  his  brother,  “  that 
when  he  had  in  the  world  but  three  shillings,  he 
had  given  half  a  crown  for  an  entrance,  reserving 
but  sixpence  to  bet  with.”  Often  the  sixpence 
was  turned  to  good  account ;  but  he  was  always 
in  debt.  “And  this  pinching  necessity  drew  him 
into  practices  very  unjustifiable,  and,  except  among 
inexperienced  boys,  altogether  inexcusable.  When 
a  fresh  youth  came  to  the  school,  he  and  his  com¬ 
panions  looked  out  sharp  to  discover  how  well  his 
pockets  were  lined ;  and  some  of  them  would  in¬ 
sinuate  into  his  acquaintance,  and,  becoming  dear 
friends,  one  after  another  borrow  what  he  had ; 
and  all  got  that  way  was  gain  to  the  common 
stock  ;  for,  if  he  was  importunate  about  having  his 
money  again,  they  combined  and  led  him  a  weari¬ 
some  life,  and,  rather  than  fail,  basted  him  till  he 
was  reduced  to  a  better  temper.” 


140  Dudley  North’s  Apprenticeship. 

That  was  poor  training  for  one  intended  to  be 
an  honest  merchant.  But  Dudley  North  soon  dis¬ 
covered  his  error.  He  managed  to  pay  off  all  his 
debts  ;  and  he  left  school  with  a  solemn  resolution, 
which  he  kept,  never  to  incur  obligations  for  a  far¬ 
thing  more  than  he  really  possessed.  He  was  ap¬ 
prenticed  to  a  Turkey  merchant  in  Threadneedle 
Street,  and  initiated  in  all  the  mysteries  of  London 
commerce  before  going  abroad  as  supercargo  to  a 
ship  proceeding  to  Archangel.  That  was  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  many  years’  absence  from  England, 
passed  in  busy  money-making,  and  enlivened  by 
many  strange  experiences,  of  which  welcome  rec¬ 
ord  exists,  either  in  his  own  letters  or  in  his  broth¬ 
er’s  reminiscences. 

He  was  a  “  raw  youth,”  only  seventeen  or  eight¬ 
een  years  old,  when  he  started.  He  first  went  to 
Archangel,  there  to  sell  his  goods  and  stock  the 
ship  with  others,  which  he  proceeded  to  dispose  of 
in  Italy,  before  taking  up  his  residence  at  Smyrna. 
His  own  capital  was  only  ^100;  but  he  spent  it 
prudently  in  buying  such  articles  as  were  sure  to 
bring  him  a  large  profit  when  sold  in  England, 
and  he  found  other  occupation  as  agent  for  sev¬ 
eral  Turkey  merchants  in  London.  “  He  did  not, 
as  most  young  factors,  set  himself  up  in  an  expen¬ 
sive  way  of  living,  after  the  example  of  those  that 
he  found  upon  the  place,  for  he  wore  plain  and 
cheap  clothes,  kept  no  horse,  and  put  himself  to 
diet  as  cheap  as  he  could.  He  was  a  gentleman 
ever  brisk  and  witty,  a  great  observer  of  all  inci- 


Life  at  Smyrna. 


141 

dents,  and  withal  very  friendly  and  communicative, 
which  made  him  be  generally  beloved,  and  his 
company  desired  by  the  top  merchants  of  the  fac¬ 
tory.”  He  did  not  at  first,  however,  prosper  as 
well  as  many  of  them.  He  made  more  money  for 
his  employes  than  for  himself,  and  soon  grew  dis¬ 
satisfied  with  Smyrna.  Therefore,  after  a  brief 
visit  to  England,  he  gladly  accepted  the  offer  of  a 
Mr.  William  Hodges,  living  at  Constantinople,  to 
become  his  partner.  At  that  time  “  there  was  no 
greater  emporium  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  than 
Constantinople,  where  a  merchant  of  spirit  and 
judgment,  by  trade  with  the  Court,  and  with  the 
dealers  that  there  came  together  from  most  parts 
of  the  world,  could  not  fail  of  being  rich.” 

So  Dudley  North  found  it.  Almost  from  the 
first  he  was  in  reality,  if*  not  in  form,  the  head  of 
the  Constantinople  factory.  He  soon  reformed 
the  whole  method  of  transacting  business,  and  put 
it  in  a  more  profitable  shape  than  had  ever  been 
known  before.  He  made  himself  thorough  master 
of  the  Turkish  language,  and,  of  the  five  hundred 
or  more  lawsuits  which  he  found  it  necessary  to 
engage  in,  conducted  most  in  his  own  person. 
“  He  had  certain  schemes  by  which  he  governed 
himself,  and  seldom  failed  of  a  prosperous  suc¬ 
cess  ;”  some  of  them,  however,  not  being  much  to 
his  honor.  He  brought  to  perfection  the  art  of 
bribing  judges.  He  also,  according  to  his  broth¬ 
er’s  testimony,  “  found  that  in  a  direct  fact,  a  false 
witness  is  a  surer  card  than  a  true  one  ;  for,  if  the 


142 


Life  at  Constantmople. 


judge  has  a  mind  to  baffle  a  testimony,  an  harm¬ 
less,  honest  witness,  that  doth  not  know  his  play, 
can  not  so  well  stand  his  many  captious  questions 
as  a  false  witness,  used  to  the  trade,  will  do.”  It 
must  be  remembered,  however,  in  Dudley  North’s 
excuse,  that  these  practices  were,  in  his  day  and 
long  after,  almost  as  current  in  England  as  they 
were  in  Turkey. 

North’s  trade  in  Constantinople,  “by  which  he 
obtained  superabundant  profit,”  as  his  brother 
avers,  w\as  chiefly  with  the  Turkish  Court,  which 
he  supplied  with  jewels  and  other  costly  furniture, 
often  making  four  or  five  thousand  dollars  by  a 
single  transaction ;  and  with  the  officers  and 
agents  of  the  government,  who  were  glad  to  bor¬ 
row  of  him  all  the  money  he  had  to  lend  at  twenty 
or  thirty  per  cent,  interest.  “  All  those  who  come 
into  posts  of  authority  and  profit  in  Turkey,”  we 
read,  “  are  sure  to  pay  for  them  ;  and,  on  that  ac¬ 
count,  the  seraglio  is  a  sort  of  market.  This  makes 
the  pashas,  who  solicit  for  better  preferment,  and 
all  the  pretenders  to  places,  prodigiously  greedy 
of  money,  which  they  can  not  have  without  borrow¬ 
ing  ;  and  if  they  can  but  get  the  money,  they  care 
not  upon  what  terms,  for  the  place  to  be  paid  for 
will  soon  reimburse  them.  The  lending  these  men 
money  is  a  very  easy  trade  as  to  the  terms,  but  a 
very  difficult  trade  as  to  the  security.  For,  by  the 
Turkish  law,  all  interest  for  the  forbearance  of 
money  is  unlawful ;  and  the  debtor  need  not,  what¬ 
ever  he  agrees,  pay  a  farthing  on  that  account. 


Turkish  Trade . 


J4  3 


Therefore  they  are  to  be  forced  to  go  to  tricks  ; 
and,  like  our  gamesters,  take  the  interest  together 
with  the  principal.  There  is  a  world  of  cunning 
and  caution  belongs  to  this  kind  of  dealing,  and 
the  wisest  may  suffer  greatly  by  it ;  but  our  mer¬ 
chant  had  the  good  luck  to  come  off  scot-free,  and 
made  his  advantages  accordingly.” 

His  advantages  were  various.  With  one  Turk, 
the  captain  of  a  galley,  named  Boba-Hassan,  he 
had  numerous  dealings.  For  each  voyage  he  lent 
him  large  sums  of  money,  which  were  returned 
twice  over  at  the  end  of  the  expedition.  “  He 
used  him  as  well  for  getting  off  his. rotten  cloth 
and  trumpery  goods,  which  were  not  otherwise 
vendible  ;  for  he  could  be  demure  and  say  he  had 
no  money,  but  he  had  some  goods  left,  and  if  he 
would  please  to  take  them  for  part,  with  some 
money  he  could  raise,  he  might  serve  him  with  the 
sum  he  desired,  and  so  forth.  Once  he  was  walk¬ 
ing  in  the  street  at  Constantinople,  and  saw  a  fel¬ 
low  bearing  a  piece  of  very  rotten,  worthless  cloth, 
that  he  had  put  off  to  the  captain.  He  knew  it 
again,  and  could  not  hold,  but  asked  the  fellow 
where  he  had  that  cloth.  With  that  the  man 
throws  down  the  cloth,  and  sitting  him  down  at 
the  door,  fell  to  swearing  and  cursing  that  dog 
Boba-Hassan,  that  made  him  take  it  for  a  debt ; 
but  he  more  furiously  cursed  that  dog  that  sold  it 
to  him,  wishing  him,  his  father,  mother,  and  all  his 
kindred,  burned  alive.  The  merchant  found  it 
best  to  sneak  away,  for  if  he  had  been  found  out 


144  Dudley  North  i?i  England. 

to  have  been  once  the  cloth’s  owner,  he  had  cer¬ 
tainly  been  beaten.” 

Dudley  North  can  not  be  greatly  praised  for 
honesty ;  but,  to  say  the  least,  he  was  no  worse 
than  most  merchants  of  his  time.  “  As  to  all  the 
mercantile  arts  or  guiles,”  says  his  brother,  “  and 
stratagems  of  trade,  which  could  be  used  to  get 
money  from  those  he  dealt  with,  I  believe  he  was 
no  niggard ;  but  as  for  falsities,  such  as  cheating 
by  weights  and  measures,  or  any  thing  that  was 
knavish,  treacherous,  or  perfidious,  even  with  Jews 
or  Turks,  he  was  as  clear  as  any  man  living.  He 
transacted  $nd  dealt  in  all  respects  as  a  merchant 
of  honor.”  The  Levant  Company,  at  any  rate, 
found  him  a  better  servant  than  it  had  ever  had 
before. 

He  also  served  himself  so  well,  that,  before  he 
was  forty  years  old,  he  was  rich  enough  to  return 
to  England.  This  he  did  in  the  spring  of  1680. 
He  immediately  established  himself  as  a  Turkey 
.merchant  in  London,  having  a  house  in  Basinghall 
Street,  with  offices  and  warehouses  close  to  the 
Exchange.  He  also  became  the  principal  director 
of  the  African  Company,  a  trading  society  akin  to 
the  East  India  and  Turkey  Companies,  but  older 
than  either,  formed  for  dealing  in  the  commodi¬ 
ties  of  the  West  Coast  of  Africa.  “  Here  it  was 
that,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Exchange,  he  first  did 
justice  to  his  character.  For  he  was  sagacious  to 
take  the  substance  of  any  matter  at  the  first  open¬ 
ing  ;  and  then,  having  by  proper  questions  more 


Sir  Josiah  Child.  145 

fully  informed  himself,  he  could  clearly  unfold  the 
difficulty,  with  all  its  circumstances  of  advantage 
and  disadvantage,  to  the  understanding  of  others. 
He  was  an  exquisite  judge  of  adventures,  and  the 
valor  and  eligibility  of  them.  He  was  very  quick 
at  discerning  the  fraud  or  sincerity  of  many  per¬ 
sons  the  Company  had  trusted,  as  also  the  char¬ 
acter  of  those  that  proffered,  and  were  examined, 
in  order  to  be  employed  or  trusted.  If  he  once 
found  that  any  person  was  false  or  had  cheated 
the  Company,  he  was  ever  after  inflexible,  and  no 
solicitation  or  means  whatsoever  could  prevail 
with  him  to  cover  or  connive.” 

A  yet  more  skillful  and  prosperous  merchant  of 
London  in  that  time,  however,  was  Sir  Josiah  Child, 
eleven  years  older  than  Dudley  North.  Born  in 
1630,  he  began  to  prosper  as  a  merchant  during 
the  period  of  the  Commonwealth.  His  first  em¬ 
ployment  was  in  trade  with  New  England  and  the 
other  young  and  thriving  colonies  in  America. 
Then  he  became  the  most  influential  member  of 
the  East  India  Company,  which  had  been  rapidly 
and  steadily  progressing  since  its  establishment  sev¬ 
enty  years  before  under  the  direction  of  Sir  Thom¬ 
as  Smythe.  Near  the  end  of  Charles  II.’s  reign, 
Child  began  to  be  the  foremost  man  in  its  manage¬ 
ment.  A  stanch  Whig  before,  he  now  turned  into 
a  zealous  Tory;  and,  according  to  his  many  ene¬ 
mies,  made  the  Company  an  immense  machinery 
for  Tory  jobbing.  “  By  hte  great  annual  presents,” 
according  to  one,  “  he  could  command,  both  at 

K 


146  A  Merchant  Courtier. 

Court  and  Westminster  Hall,  what  he  pleased.” 
“  A  present  of  ten  thousand  guineas,”  says  Macau¬ 
lay,  “  was  graciously  received  from  him  by  Charles. 
Ten  thousand  more  were  accepted  by  James,  who 
readily  consented  to  become  a  holder  of  stock. 
All  who  could  help  or  hurt  at  Court,  ministers,  mis- 


Sir  Josiah  Child,  Bart. 


tresses,  priests,  were  kept  in  good-humor  by  pres¬ 
ents  of  shawls  and  silks,  birds’-nests  and  attar  of 
roses,  purses  of  diamonds,  and  bags  of  guineas. 
His  bribes,  distributed  with  judicious  prodigality, 
speedily  produced  a  large  return ;  just  when  the 


The  East  Lidia  Company.  147 

Court  was  all-powerful  in  the  State,  he  became  all- 
powerful  at  the  Court.” 

Whether  Child  was  honest  or  not  in  his  change 
of  politics,  and  in  his  subserviency  to  the  degener¬ 
ate  Stuarts,  it  is  clear  that  he  used  his  position  to 
the  great  advantage  of  the  East  India  Company, 
no  less  than  to  his  own  advancement.  In  some 
years  he  held  the  office  of  Governor  of  the  Com¬ 
pany  ;  in  others  he  left  it  to  be  held  by  other  mer¬ 
chants.  But  in  either  case  alike  he  was  its  chief 
guide  and  ruler.  Every  proposal  was  submitted 
to  his  consideration,  every  edict  reflected  his  wish¬ 
es.  On  one  occasion,  when  the  Governor  of  Bom¬ 
bay  wrote  home  to  say  that  the  laws  of  England 
made  it  impossible  for  him  to  obey  the  instruc¬ 
tions  sent  out  to  him,  he  is  reported  to  have  an¬ 
grily  replied,  “  That  he  expected  his  orders  to  be 
the  rules,  and  not  the  laws  of  England,  which  were 
a  heap  of  nonsense,  compiled  by  a  few  ignorant 
country  gentlemen  who  hardly  knew  how  to  make 
laws  for  the  good  of  their  own  private  families, 
much  less  for  the  regulating  of  companies  and  for¬ 
eign  commerce  !”  That  report  is  hardly  to  be  be¬ 
lieved  ;  but  it  is  clear  that  Child’s  great  success  in 
accumulating  wealth  for  himself  and  in  forwarding 
the  interests  of  the  East  India  Company  made  him 
somewhat  haughty  and  imperious  in  his  deport¬ 
ment.  “  He  was  a  man  of  great  notions  as  to 
merchandise,  which  was  his  education,  and  in 
which  he  succeeded  beyond  any  man  of  his  time,” 
says  one  of  his  friends.  “  He  had  a  compass  of 


148  Dudley  North  as  Sheriff. 

knowledge  and  apprehension  unusual  to  men  of 
his  profession.  He  was  vain  and  covetous,  and 
thought  too  cunning,  though  he  seemed  to  be  al¬ 
ways  sincere.”  He  was  a  less  amiable  man  than 
his  contemporary,  Sir  Dudley  North. 

In  1682,  at  the  instigation  of  his  brother,  the 
Lord  Keeper,  Dudley  North  accepted  office  under 
Charles  II.,  as  Sheriff  of  London,  and  in  that  ca¬ 
pacity  he  gave  great  satisfaction  to  the  courtly 
party  by  his  zealous  prosecution  of  the  Whigs. 
“  The  Government  found  in  him,”  says  Lord  Mac¬ 
aulay,  “  at  once  an  enlightened  adviser  and  an  un¬ 
scrupulous  slave.  His  juries  never  failed  to  find 
verdicts  of  guilty  ;  and  on  a  day  of  judicial  butch¬ 
ery,  carts,  loaded  with  the  legs  and  arms  of  quar¬ 
tered  Whigs,  were,  to  the  great  discomposure  of 
his  lady,  driven  to  his  fine  house  in  Basinghall 
Street  for  orders.”  For  services  of  this  sort  he 
was  knighted,  and,  besides  being  made  Alderman 
of  Basinghall  Ward,  was  appointed  a  Commission¬ 
er  of  Customs,  that  office  being  afterward  ex¬ 
changed  for  a  brief  period  for  a  Commissionership 
in  the  Treasury,  with  a  salary  of  ^1600  a  year. 
On  the  accession  of  James  II.,  he  entered  Parlia¬ 
ment  as  member  for  Banbury,  and  at  once  his 
ready  wit  and  great  experience,  heartily  devoted 
to  the  service  of  the  Tories,  made  him  the  finan¬ 
cial  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons.  His  plan 
of  levying  additional  imposts  on  sugar,  tobacco, 
wine,  and  vinegar  was  regarded  as  a  triumph  of 
statesmanship,  and  secured  for  King  J  ames  an  in- 


Dudley  North  o?i  Free  Trade.  149 

come  of  ^1,900,000  for  the  year  1685.  He  lost 
his  seat  and  his  offices,  however,  soon  after  the 
establishment  of  William  of  Orange,  and  it  was 
said  only  escaped  attainder  through  his  skill  in 
falsification. 

In  1691  Dudley  North  issued  some  “Discour¬ 
ses  upon  Trade,”  full  of  sensible  opinions  on  com¬ 
mercial  matters.  “  Although  to  buy  and  sell,”  he 
said,  “  be  the  employment  of  every  man,  more  or 
less,  and  the  common  people,  for  the  most  part, 
depend  upon  it  for  their  daily  subsistence,  yet 
there  are  very  few  who  consider  trade  in  the  gen¬ 
eral  upon  true  principles,  but  are  satisfied  to  un¬ 
derstand  their  own  particular  trades,  and  which 
way  to  let  themselves  into  immediate  gain.”  He 
boldly  denounced  all  such  selfish  views,  showed 
the  folly  and  evil  of  all  restrictive  measures,  and 
steadfastly  argued  for  the  establishment  of  entire 
freedom  in  all  commercial  dealings.  He  main¬ 
tained  that  “  the  whole  world,  as  to  trade,  is  but  as 
one  nation  or  people,  and  therein  nations  are  as 
persons  »”  that  “  no  laws  can  set  prices  in  trade, 
the  rates  of  which  must  and  will  make  them¬ 
selves  ;  but  when  such  laws  do  happen  to  lay  any 
hold,  it  is  so  much  impediment  to  trade,  and  there¬ 
fore  prejudicial;”  that  “all  favor  to  one  trade  or 
interest  against  another  is  an  abuse,  and  cuts  so 
much  of  profit  from  the  public  ;”  in  fine,  that  “  no 
people  ever  yet  grew  rich  by  policies  ;  it  is  peace, 
and  industry,  and  freedom,  that  bring  trade  and 
wealth,  and  nothing  else.” 


Disastrous  Commerce. 


r5° 

His  public  work  for  the  Stuarts  had  for  some 
years  taken  Dudley  North  from  his  old  avocations 
as  a  merchant.  On  his  retirement  he  returned  to 
them,  but  not  for  long.  “  He  had  formerly  joined 
with  other  merchants  in  building  three  defensible 
ships  ;  for  piracies  in  the  straits  had  made  trading 
in  small  vessels  too  hazardous,  and  the  employ¬ 
ment  of  these  ships  had  engaged  him  deeper  in 
adventure  than  otherwise  he  had  been.  But  after 
the  Revolution  things  grew  worse  and  worse ;  be¬ 
cause  the  wars  with  the  French  gave  them  an  ad¬ 
vantage  over  our  Turkey  trade,  and  both  at  home 
and  abroad  they  met  with  us.  One  of  his  great 
ships,  with  a  considerable  adventure,  homeward 
bound,  and  little  insured,  was  taken  by  the  French. 
But  yet  he  traded  on,  and  it  appeared  his  estate 
was  less  by  ,£10,000  than  it  was  when  the  French 
war  first  broke  out.  I  believe  he  had  less  perse¬ 
vered  in  trade  at  that  time  if  he  had  not  had  a  con¬ 
sideration  of  his  house  in  Constantinople,  where 
his  brother  Montague  was  his  factor,  to  whom  he 
thought  himself  bound  to  send  out  business,  espe¬ 
cially  when  others  withdrew,  else  they  must  have 
sunk.  But  so  many  corrections  as  he  received, 
one  after  another,  abated  his  mettle  ;  and  his  fam¬ 
ily  was  increasing,  and  children  were  coming  for¬ 
ward,  whom  he  considered  before  himself ;  and, 
what  was  worst  of  all,  he  grew  liable  to  infirmities, 
especially  the  phthisic,  which  made  him  not  so  ac¬ 
tive  as  he  had  been  and  desired  to  be.” 

In  1682,  just  before  his  election  as  Sheriff,  he 


I 


A  1 

f! 

Trade  in  Matrimony.  15 1 

had  fallen  in  love  with  Lady  Gunning,  a  widow 
lady,  very  beautiful,  and  rich,  the  daughter  of  Sir 
Robert  Cann,  a  morose  old  merchant  of  Bristol, 
as  his  brother  testified.  There  was  some  hin- 
derance  to  the  match,  through  the  old  gentleman’s 
anxiety  to  secure  a  large  settlement  for  his  daugh¬ 
ter.  When  his  consent  was  asked,  he  required 
that  North  should  purchase  and  secure  to  the 
lady  an  estate  worth  ^3000  or  ^4000  a  year. 

The  merchant  replied  that  he  could  not  spare  so 
much  capital  from  his  business,  but  that  he  would 
make  a  settlement  of  ^20,000.  To  that  he  re¬ 
ceived  a  brief  reply  :  “  Sir, — My  answer  to  your 
first  letter  is  an  answer  to  your  second.  Your 
humble  servant,  R.  C.”  His  rejoinder  was  as 
brief :  “  Sir, — I  perceive  you  like  neither  me  nor 
my  business.'  Your  humble  servant,  D.  N.”  But 
Dudley  North  did  like  his  business.  He  therefore 
addressed  himself  to  the  daughter,  and  with  such 
effect  that  she  consented  to  marry  him  without  her 
father’s  leave.  “  The  old  knight,  her  father,”  it  is 
added,  “  came  at  last  to  be  proud  of  his  son  ;  for 
when  the  first  visit  was  paid  to  Bristol,  Mr.  North, 
to  humor  the  vanity  of  that  city  and  people,  put 
himself  in  a  splendid  equipage.  And  the  old  man, 
in  his  own  house,  often  said  to  him,  ‘  Come,  son, 
let  us  go  out  and  shine  ’ — that  is,  walk  about  the 
streets,  with  six  footmen  in  rich  liveries  attend- 

*  5  5 

ing. 

The  wedding  festivities  kept  pace  with  the  mer¬ 
chant’s  knighthood,  and  his  induction  into  the 


152  Dudley  North's  Great  House . 

shrieval  honors.  “Mr.  North  took  a  great  hall 
that  belonged  to  one  of  the  companies,  and  kept 
his  entertainment  there.  He  had  divers  very  con¬ 
siderable  presents  from  friends  and  relations,  be¬ 
sides  the  compliments  of  the  several  companies 
inviting  themselves  and  their  wives  to  dinner,  drop¬ 
ping  their  guineas  and  taking  apostle-spoons  in 
the  room  of  them ;  which,  with  what  they  ate, 
drank,  and  such  as  came  in  the  shape  of  wives — 
for  they  often  gratified  a  she-friend  or  relation 
with  that  preferment — carried  away,  made  but  an 
indifferent  bargain.  His  lady,  contrary  to  her  na¬ 
ture  and  humor,  which  was  to  be  retired,  kept  him 
company  in  public  at  his  feastings,  sitting  at  the 
head  of  the  table  at  those  noisy  and  fastidious  din¬ 
ners.  The  mirth  and  rejoicing  that  was  in  the 
city,  as  well  at  these  feasts  as  at  private  entertain¬ 
ments,  is  scarce  to  be  expressed.  It  was  so  great 
that  those  who  called  themselves  the  sober  party 
were  very  much  scandalized  at  it,  and  lamented 
the  debauchery  that  had  such  encouragement  in 
the  city.” 

Soon  after  his  marriage,  Sir  Dudley  North  left 
his  house  in  Basinghall  Street  for  a  much  larger 
one  at  the  back  of  the  Goldsmiths’  Hall.  This  he 
did  chiefly  “  because  his  lady,  though  affecting  re¬ 
tirement,  yet,  when  she  did  appear,  loved  to  have 
a  parade  about  her  ;  and  often  childing  brought 
christenings,  which  in  the  city  were  usually  cele¬ 
brated  with  much  company  and  feastings.”  In 
furnishing  the  house  he  spent  at  least  ^4000,  and 


His  Occupations  in  it. 


T53 


its  suite  of  reception-rooms  was  one  of  the  won¬ 
ders  of  the  day.  It  was  the  scene  of  feasts  with¬ 
out  number — christening-feasts  being  frequent,  and 
most  sumptuous  of  all — in  which  all  the  civic  forms 
and  ceremonies  were  scrupulously  observed.  But 
the  house  had  one  great  disadvantage,  causing  Sir 
Dudley,  we  are  told,  much  repentance  of  his  van¬ 
ity.  “  It  was  situated  among  the  goldsmiths  and 
other  smoky  trades,  that,  for  convenience  of  the 
Hall,  are  very  thickly  planted  thereabouts,  and 
their  smoke  and  dust  filled  the  air,  and  confounded 
all  his  good  furniture.  He  labored  hard  in  per¬ 
son  to  calk  up  the  windows,  and  all  chimneys  not 
used  were  kept  close  stopped.  But  notwithstand¬ 
ing  all  that  could  be  done  to  prevent  it,  the  dust 
gathered  thick  upon  every  thing  within  doors ; 
for  which  reason  the  rooms  were  often  let  stand 
without  any  furniture  at  all.” 

Sir  Dudley  North’s  mode  of  life  in  these  last 
years  was  minutely  described  by  his  brother. 
“  His  domestic  methods  were  always  reasonable, 
but,  toward  his  lady,  superlatively  obliging.  He 
was  absent  from  her  as  little  as  he  could,  and  that 
was  being  abroad;  but  at  home  they  were  seldom 
asunder.  When  he  had  his  great  house,  a  little 
room  near  his  chamber,  which  they  called  a  dress¬ 
ing-room,  was  sequestered  for  the  accommodation 
of  both  of  them.  She  had  her  implements,  and  he 
his  books  of  account ;  and  having  fixed  a  table  and 
a  desk,  all  his  counting-house  business  was  done 
there.  There  also  he  read  such  books  as  pleased 


154  Dudley  North's  Vinegar-Making. 

him,  and,  though  he  was  a  kind  of  dunce  at  school, 
in  his  manhood  he  recovered  so  much  Latin  as  to 
make  him  take  pleasure  in  the  best  classics,  espe¬ 
cially  in  Tully’s  philosophies,  which  I  recommend¬ 
ed  to  him.  If  time  lay  on  his  hands,  he  would  as¬ 
sist  his  lady  in  her  affairs.  I  have  come  there  and 
found  him  very  busy  in  picking  out  the  stitches  of 
a  dislaced  petticoat.  But  his  tenderness  to  his 
children  was  very  uncommon,  for  he  would  often 
sit  by  while  they  were  dressing  and  undressing, 
and  would  be  assisting  himself  if  they  were  at  any 
time  sick  or  out  of  order.  Once  his  eldest  son, 
when  about  five  years  old,  had  a  chilblain,  which 
an  ignorant  apothecary  had  converted  into  a 
wound,  and  it  was  surgeon’s  work  for  near  six 
months,  and  the  poor  child  relapsed  into  arms 
again  until  it  was  cured.  But,  after  the  methods 
were  instituted,  the  father  would  dress  it  himself.” 

In  all  sorts  of  pleasant,  homely  ways  the  retired 
merchant  found  occupation  and  amusement  for 
himself.  “  In  that  great  house  he  had  much  more 
room  than  his  family  required.  He  used  his  spare 
rooms  for  operations  and  natural  experiments,  and 
one  operation  was  a  very  useful  one — that  was  a 
fabric  for  vinegar.  He  managed  that  in  three  ves¬ 
sels.  The  first  had  the  fruit,  or  whatever  was  the 
ground  ;  this  was  always  foul.  From  whence  he 
took  into  the  next  vessel,  where  it  refined ;  and 
out  of  that  he  drew  a  third  ;  and  from  thence  took 
for  use.  The  first  was  continually  supplied  with 
raisin-stalks,  warm  water,  etc.  In  this  manner, 


A  Merchant  at  Play.  155 

after  the  course  was  begun,  the  house  was  supplied 
with  little  or  no  charge  for  several  years.” 

North  travelled  much  each  summer.  He  went 
frequently  to  Bristol  and  the  neighborhood,  where 
lay  his  wife’s  property  ;  and  from  the  time  of  his 
brother,  the  Lord  Keeper  Guildford’s  death,  he 
was  often  at  his  house  at  Wroxton,  there  fulfilling 
his  trust  as  guardian  of  the  young  Lord  Guildford. 
“At  Wroxton,”  says  Roger  North,  “there  was  an 
old  building  which  was  formerly  Hawk’s  Mews. 
There  we  instituted  a  laboratory.  One  apartment 
was  for  wood-works,  and  the  other  for  iron.  His 
business  was  hewing  and  framing,  and,  being  per¬ 
mitted  to  sit,  he  would  labor  very  hard;  and  in 
that  manner  he  hewed  the  frames  for  our  necessa¬ 
ry  tables.  He  put  them  together  only  with  caps 
and  pins,  but  so  as  served  the  occasion  very  well. 
We  got  up  a  table  and  a  bench ;  but  the  great 
difficulty  was  to  get  bellows  and  a  forge.  He 
hewed  such  stones  as  lay  about,  and  built  a  hearth 
with  a  back,  and  by  means  of  water  and  an  old 
iron  which  he  knocked  right  down,  he  perforated 
that  stone  for  the  wind  to  come  at  the  fire.  What 
common  tools  we  wanted  we  sent  and  bought,  and 
also  a  leather  skin,  with  which  he  made  a  pair  of 
bellows  that  wrought  overhead,  and  the  wind  was 
conveyed  by  elder  guns  let  into  one  another,  and 
so  it  got  to  the  fire.  Upon  finding  a  piece  of  an 
old  anvil,  we  went  to  work,  and  wrought  all  the 
iron  that  was  used  in  our  manufactory.  He  de¬ 
lighted  most  in  hewing.  He  allowed  me,  being  a 


156  Dudley  North's  Amuse?nents. 

lawyer,  as  he  said,  to  be  the  best  forger.  This  was 
morning  work  before  dressing,  he  coming  out  with 
a  red  short  waistcoat,  red  cap,  and  black  face  ;  so 
that  my  lady,  when  she  came  to  call  us  to  dinner, 
was  full  of  admiration  what  creatures  she  had  in 
her  family.  In  the  afternoons  we  had  employment 
which  was  somewhat  more  refined ;  and  that  was 
planing  and  turning,  for  which  use  we  sequestered 
a  low  closet.  We  had  our  engines  from  London, 
and  many  round  implements  were  made.  It  was 
not  a  little  strange  to  see  with  what  earnestness  and 
pains  we  worked,  sweating  most  immoderately,  and 
scarce  allowing  ourselves  time  to  eat.  At  the 
lighter  works  in  the  afternoon  he  hath  sat,  perhaps, 
scraping  a  stick,  of  turning  a  piece  of  wood,  and 
this  for  many  afternoons  together,  all  the  while 
singing  like  a  cobbler,  incomparably  better  pleased 
than  he  had  been  in  all  the  stages  of  his  life  be¬ 
fore.” 

From  pleasant  retirement  of  that  sort  Sir  Dud¬ 
ley  North  was  called  away  by  death  when  only 
fifty  years  of  age.  He  divided  the  vacation  of 
1691,  as  usual,  between  Wroxton  and  Bristol.  On 
his  coming  back  to  London  for  the  winter,  he  was 
troubled  with  a  cold,  but  made  light  of  it,  as  was 
his  wont.  Near  the  end  of  December  he  became 
suddenly  worse.  “  He  was  thereupon  put  to  bed,” 
says  his  brother,  “  and,  as  I  found  him,  lay  gasping 
for  breath.  He  discoursed  seriously  that  he  found 
himself  very  ill,  and  concluded  he  should  die  ;  that 
he  knew  of  no  cause  of  illness  on  his  part,  but 


His  Death. 


i57 


God’s  will  be  done.  Dr.  Radcliff  was  sent  for ; 
and  he,  observing  his  breathing  with  a  small  hic¬ 
cup,  asked  if  he  was  used  to  breathe  in  that  way ; 
and,  somebody  saying  ‘no,’- he  asked  no  more 
questions.  Sir  Dudley  lay  not  long  in  this  man¬ 
ner  ;  but  in  all  good  sense,  conscience,  and  under¬ 
standing,  perfect  tranquillity  of  mind,  and  entire 
resignation,  he  endured  the  pain  of  hard  breathing 
till  he  breathed  no  more,  which  happened  on  the 
31st  of  December,  1691.”  “  Well !”  exclaimed  the 

apothecary  who  attended  him,  “  I  never  saw  any 
people  so  willing  to  die  as  these  Norths  are  !” 


158 


Thomas  Guy. 


VIII. 

THOMAS  GUY. 

[1644-1724.] 

J  N  Horsleydown,  near  the  eastern  end  of  Tooley 

Street,  which  was  then  what  its  name  implies, 
a  down  for  horses  to  graze  in,  near  to  the  southern 
bank  of  the  Thames,  and  just  opposite  to  the  Tow¬ 
er  of  London,  Thomas  Guy  was  born  in  1644,  three 
years  after  Dudley  North.  His  long  life,  however, 
carries  us  into  a  generation  later  than  North’s,  and 
into  a  region  of  commerce  very  different  from  that 
in  which  North  made  himself  famous. 

His  father  was  a  lighterman  and  coal-dealer, 
who  carried  on  a  humble  but  respectable  trade  in 
the  district  specially  appropriated  to  small  shipping 
and  to  traffic  in  coal,  which  was  just  then  begin¬ 
ning  to  be  brought  in  considerable  quantities  from 
Newcastle  and  its  neighborhood,  to  take  the  place 
of  the  wood,  which  had  hitherto  been  almost  the 
only  fuel  in  use  among  Englishmen.  So  great  had 
been  the  prejudice  against  Newcastle  coal  in  for¬ 
mer  times  that,  during  the  reign  of  Edward  I.,  one 
man  was  hanged  for  daring  to  burn  it  within  the 
walls  of  London. 

Thomas  Guy  lost  his  father  when  he  was  eight 
years  old.  But  his  mother,  a  native  of  Tam  worth, 
was  a  good  and  clever  woman,  determined  to  help 
her  children  on  in  the  world.  She  carefully  train- 


Thomas  Guy's  Youth. 


x59 


ed  them  herself,  and  gave  them  the  best  schooling 
that  could  be  had.  Little  Thomas  played  upon 
the  open  fields,  which  then  stretched  along  the 
banks  of  the  river  up  to  London  Bridge,  and  took 
heartily  to  his  lessons,  showing  an  especial  fond¬ 
ness  for  books.  That  fondness  may  have  led  his 
mother  to  apprentice  him  for  eight  years  in  1660, 
to  a  bookseller  named  John  Clarke,  whose  shop 
was  in  the  porch  of  Mercer’s  Chapel,  in  Cheap- 
side. 

4 

Guy  was  then  sixteen  years  old.  He  served 
his  time,  and  became  a  member  of  the  Stationers’ 
Company.  But  before  the  time  was  up,  on  the 
morning  of  the  2d  of  September,  1 666,  he  was  call¬ 
ed  out  to  see  the  most  wonderful  sight  and  the 
most  terrible  calamity  that  ever  happened  in  Lon¬ 
don.  At  a  baker’s  shop  in  Pudding  Lane,  on  Fish 
Street  Hill,  at  the  spot  now  marked  by  the  Monu¬ 
ment,  a  fire  broke  out.  Most  of  the  houses  being 
of  wood,  and  there  being  no  fire-engines  or  other 
efficient  means  of  staying  it,  the  fire  was  driven  by 
a  sharp  wind  north,  south,  and  west,  as  far  as  Pye 
Corner,  in  Smithfield.  People  afterward  made  fun 
of  the  fire  which  began  at  a  baker’s  shop  in  Pud¬ 
ding  Lane  and  spread  to  Pye  Corner.  But  the 
Great  Fire  was  no  matter  for  a  joke.  Through 
four  long  days  and  nights  it  grew  and  raged,  dark¬ 
ening  the  sun,  and,  with  its  lurid  glare,  making 
night  as  bright  as  day.  “The  sky,”  says  John 
Evelyn,  who  watched  it,  “was  like  the  top  of  a 
burning  oven,  visible  for  forty  miles  round,  to  which 


160  The  Great  Fire  of  London. 

distance  the  smoke  extended.  The  crackling  of 
the  flames,  the  shrieking  of  the  women  and  chil: 
dren,  the  fall  of  towers,  houses,  and  churches,  was 
like  a  hideous  storm,  and  the  air  about  so  hot  and 
inflamed  that  at  last  no  one  could  approach  it. 
The  stones  flew  like  grenadoes,  and  the  melting 
lead  ran  down  the  street  in  a  stream,  and  the  very 
pavement  glowed  with  fiery  redness.”  Sir  Thom¬ 
as  Gresham’s  Exchange,  the  old  Guildhall,  the  ven¬ 
erable  cathedral  of  St.  Paul’s,  considered  the  no¬ 
blest  in  Christendom,  were  destroyed,  along  with 
eighty-nine  churches,  and  more  than  thirteen  thou¬ 
sand  houses  in  four  hundred  streets.  Of  the  whole 
district  within  the  city  walls,  four  hundred  and 
thirty-six  acres  were  in  ruins,  and  only  seventy- 
five  acres  were  left  covered.  Property  worth 
^10,000,000 — a  vast  sum,  indeed,  for  the  smaller 
and  poorer  London  of  those  days — was  wasted, 
and  thousands  of  starving  Londoners  had  to  run 
for  their  lives,  and  crouch  for  days  and  weeks  on 
the  bare  fields  of  Islington  and  Hampstead,  South¬ 
wark  and  Lambeth.  “  Oh,  the  miserable  and  ca¬ 
lamitous  spectacle  !”  exclaimed  Evelyn  ;  “such  as 
haply  the  world  had  not  seen  the  like  since  the 
foundation  of  it,  nor  to  be  outdone  till  the  uni¬ 
versal  conflagration  of  it !” 

Some  good  sprang,  however,  from  the  evil.  The 
Great  Plague  of  1665,  which  began  the  year  before, 
and  continued  during  the  following  year,  and  which 
killed  nearly  seventy  thousand  people  in  London 
and  its  neighborhood,  was  burned  out  by  the  Great 


Thomas  Guy's  Book-Shop.  161 

Fire  of  1666.  And  the  narrow  streets  and  clumsy 
houses  of  old  London  were  soon  replaced  by  broad¬ 
er  thoroughfares  and  better  buildings. 

Thomas  Guy  and  his  master  were,  of  course, 
burned  out  of  their  little  shop  in  the  porch  of  Mer¬ 
cer’s  Chapel.  The  master  seems  to  have  been 
ruined ;  but  Guy,  being  only  a  shopman,  suffered 
no  serious  injury.  In  1668,  having  served  his  ap¬ 
prenticeship,  and  being  twenty-four  years  old,  he 
started  in  business  for  himself,  with  a  capital  of 
£200,  in  a  new  shop  built  on  the  sharp  corner 
formed  by  Cornhill  and  Lombard  Street,  looking 
out  upon  the  whole  length  of  the  Poultry  and 
Cheapside,  on  both  sides  of  which  more  commo¬ 
dious,  though  less  picturesque,  houses  were  being 
set  up,  with  the  second  Royal  Exchange,  now  in 
progress  of  building,  on  his  right,  and  a  little  to 
his  left  a  pretty  fruit  and  flower  market,  with  trees 
growing  up  among  its  sheds,  which  had  formerly 
been  a  meat-market,  on  the  site  now  occupied  by 
the  Mansion-house. 

There  he  prospered  in  his  work,  a  clear  notion 
of  which  we  may  derive  from  Mr.  Charles  Knight’s 
words.  “  Placed  thus,”  he  says,  “  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  great  commercial  operations  of  London,  I 
can  see  the  shadow  of  the  young  bookseller  as  he 
sits  in  his  shop  amid  his  small  stock,  restless  at 
the  want  of  occupation,  and  envying  the'  great 
merchant -adventurers  congregating  in  the  Ex¬ 
change.  He  spreads  his  new  books  and  his  old 
upon  a  board  in  front  of  his  window,  now  and  then 

L 


162 


Protestant  Bibles. 


soliciting  the  busy  trader  who  glances  at  them  to 
buy  Mr.  Wingate’s  ‘  Arithmetic  made  Easy,’  or 
Mr.  Record’s  ‘  Grounds  of  Art,’  or  Mr.  Hawse’s 
£  Short  Arithmetic,’  or  ‘  The  Old  and  Tedious 
Way  of  Numbering  reduced  to  a  New  and  Brief 
Method.’  He  had  divinity-books,  too,  chiefly  by 
the  famous  controversialists  who  wrote  against 
any  approach  to  the  errors  of  the  Church  of  Rome  ; 
and  some  by  their  opponents,  who  were  equally 
hostile  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Non-conforming  cler¬ 
gy.  Theology  was  by  far  the  most  exciting  topic 
of  those  days.  Mr.  Guy  was  a  good  Protestant ; 
and  as  he  sat  in  his  shop,  too  often  unvisited  by 
customers,  he  meditated  frequently  upon  the  large 
trade  that  he  could  command  if  it  were  in  his  pow¬ 
er  to  offer  godly  people  Bibles  well  printed  and 
cheap.  There  was  no  such  commodity  to  be  had 
in  England.  All  the  arts  associated  with  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  books  were  hampered  with  privileges 
and  restrictions,  and  were  consequently  in  a  state 
very  inferior  to  those  practiced  in  some  countries 
abroad  under  conditions  of  freedom.”  This  was 
the  case  with  all  books,  but  most  of  all  with  Bi¬ 
bles.  The  privilege  of  printing  Bibles  was  allow¬ 
ed  only  to  the  King’s  Printer  and  Oxford  Univer¬ 
sity.  But  the  University  Press  was  idle ;  and  the 
office  of  King’s  Printer  being  continued  in  one 
careless  family  for  more  than  a  century,  the  print¬ 
ing  of  the  volumes  had  come  to  be  so  “  very  bad, 
both  in  letter  and  paper,”  that  they  were  hardly 
legible,  and  full  of  gross  blunders.  One  impor- 


Guy’s  Trade  in  Bibles. 


163 


tant  text  was  in  the  Bible  of  1653  printed,  “Know 
ye  not  that  the  unrighteous  ”  (instead  of  “  right¬ 
eous”)  “shall  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God?” 
“  Fie !  for  shame !”  exclaimed  old  Fuller,  with 
good  reason.  “  Considering  with  myself  the 
causes  of  the  growth  and  increase  of  impiety  and 
profaneness  in  our  land,  among  others  this  seem- 
eth  to  me  not  the  least — the  late  many  false  and 
erroneous  impressions  of  the  Bible.  Now  know, 
what  is  but  carelessness  in  other  books,  is  impiety 
in  setting  forth  of  the  Bible.” 

As  a  good  Christian  and  a  shrewd  tradesman, 
Thomas  Guy  resolved  to  provide  better  and  cheap¬ 
er  Bibles  for  his  countrymen  ;  and,  in  so  doing,  he 
set  an  example  which  several  other  enterprising 
booksellers  of  his  day  were  quick  in  following. 
He  employed  an  agent  in  Holland,  who  bought 
for  him  good  paper  and  fine  types,  and  intrusted 
them  to  competent  Dutch  printers,  who  had  not 
yet  lost  the  fame  of  superiority  in  the  art  which 
Caxton  had  learned  from  their  forefathers  and  in¬ 
troduced  into  England  two  hundred  years  before. 
In  this  way  capital  Bibles  were  produced  and  sent 
over  to  Guy,  who  was  able  to  sell  great  numbers 
of  them  at  a  low  price,  and  yet  with  good  profit  to 
himself.  But  he  had  to  smuggle  them  into  En¬ 
gland,  and  to  be  punished  for  so  doing.  “  This 
trade,”  says  the  old  historian,  “  proving  not  only 
very  detrimental  to  the  public  revenue,  but  like¬ 
wise  to  the  King’s  Printer,  all  ways  and  means 
were  devised  to  quash  the  same,  which  being  vig- 


164 


Difficulties  and  Profits. 


orously  put  in  execution,  the  booksellers,  by  fre¬ 
quent  seizures  and  prosecutions,  became  so  great 
sufferers,  that  they  judged  a  further  pursuit  there¬ 
of  inconsistent  with  their  interest.” 

Thomas  Guy,  shrewder  and  more  prosperous 
than  the  rest,  did  not  so  judge.  But  he  bethought 
him  of  a  better  way  of  carrying  on  his  well-meant 
enterprise.  The  University  of  Oxford,  being  priv' 
ileged  to  print  Bibles,  though  it  did  not  make 
much  use  of  its*  privilege,  was,  after  much  persua¬ 
sion  from  Guy,  induced  to  farm  its  monopoly  to 
him.  He  thereupon  bought  a  good  supply  of 
types  in  Holland,  brought  them  and  a  number  of 
printers  to  London,  and  started  a  busy  little  print¬ 
ing-office  in  his  shop  at  the  corner  of  Lombard 
Street.  There  he  began  to  make  his  fortune,  and 
to  do  good  service  to  religion  and  literature,  by 
issuing  great  numbers  of  cheap  Bibles  in  the  name 
of  the  Oxford  University. 

He  was  a  frugal  man;  and  his  enemies,  jealous 
of  the  prosperity  which  he  was  honorably  attain¬ 
ing,  called  him  a  miser.  They  remembered  the 
time  when  in  the  first  year  of  his  shop-keeping,  he 
lived  a  bachelor,  himself  doing  the  whole  house¬ 
hold  work,  which  he  could  not  afford  to  keep  a 
servant  to  do  for  him,  and  when  he  ordered  his  din¬ 
ner  from  a  neighboring  cookshop  and  ate  it  at  his 
counter,  with  a  sheet  of  paper  for  his  only  table¬ 
cloth.  There  was  nothing  dishonorable  in  that. 
The  dishonor  would  have  been  in  following  the  gay 
fashion  of  the  City  gallants  of  his  day,  who  rivalled 


Guy's  Econo77iiccil  Ways.  165 

the  Court  gallants  of  Charles  II. ’s  time  in  extrav¬ 
agance,  and  incurring  expenses  beyond  his  means. 
Yet  the  foolish  contempt  which  he  won  thereby 
has  stuck  to  him  ever  since,  and  he  is  still  often 
known  as  “  Thomas  Guy,  the  miser.” 

That  he  was  always  a  very  strict  and  prudent 
man,  however — perhaps  with  rather  a  hard  cover¬ 
ing  to  the  deep  charity  that  was  in  his  heart — is 
clear.  In  illustration  of  this,  let  us  again  turn  to 
Mr.  Charles  Knight  for  a  picture  'of  him  when  he 
was  beginning  to  be  rich.  “  He  is  lonely.  He 
has  indulged  himself  with  the  cost  of  a  female 
•  servant,  who  cooks  his  frugal  meal  and  keeps  his 
Holland  shirt  tidy.  But  he  wants  the  solace  of 
a  household  friend.  He  goes  little  into  society. 
He  dines  rarely  in  his  Company’s  Hall.  The  city 
dames,  according  to  his  observation,  are  too  ambi¬ 
tious  of  finery.  He  has  once  or  twice  conversed 
during  the  banquet  at  Guildhall  with  the  daughter 
of  a  rich  stationer,  and  has  found  her  deplorably 
ignorant  of  the  commodities  in  which  her  father 
deals.  Gradually  he  begins  to  think  that  his  own 
maid-servant  is  quite  as  attractive  as  a  citizen’s 
daughter,- born  of  honest  parents,  religiously  dis¬ 
posed,  and  skilled  in  cookery  and  other  useful 
arts.  What  if  this  neat-handed  Phillis  should  be¬ 
come  his  wife  !  He  is  sure  that  he  can  compel 
her  to  regulate  his  affairs  with  due  economy.  She 
has  never  wasted  mgney  nor  victuals  while  in  his 
service.  She  has  professed  that  implicit  obedience 
to  his  will  which  he  requires.  He  at  last  makes 


i66 


Why  he  never  Married. 

his  proposal,  and  is  accepted  graciously.  But  there 
is  one  danger  which  the  handmaiden  has  not  fore¬ 
seen.  She  has  not  apprehended  the  possibility  of 
giving  dire  offense  by  the  slightest  manifestation 
of  her  own  opinion  in  opposition  to  that  of  her 
master.  He  has  been  very  cross  for  several  days. 
He  has  been  fined  once  for  neglecting  to  pave  the 
foot-way  in  front  of  his  shop.  He  delays  to  incur 
an  expense  which  he  thinks  ought  to  fall  upon  the 
pavement  commissioners;  but  he  must  yield.  The 
paviors  go  to  work.  He  watches  them  narrowly. 
He  has  a  ground-plan  of  his  own  premises,  the 
boundary  of  which  is  not  very  well  defined  in  the 
frontage.  He  gives  the  most  minute  directions 
as  to  the  exact  point  where  his  portion  of  the  stone¬ 
way  within  the  posts  should  begin  and  end.  The 
workmen  find  that  a  very  awkward  space  is  left 
unpaved.  They  carry  their  remonstrances  to  the 
incautious  maiden  within-doors  during  the  absence 
of  her  master.  She  little  knows  what  she  is  doing 
when  she  says,  ‘  Do  as  you  wish.  Tell  him  I  bade 
you,  and  I  am  sure  he  will  not  be  angry.’  The 
poor  girl  must  accept  her  destiny,  to  remain  un¬ 
married  to  the  thriving  bookseller.  The  romance 
of  Thomas  Guy’s  life  is  over.” 

Yet  he  was  to  take  a  prominent  part  in  the  most 
romantic  episode  in  the  whole  history  of  English 
commerce.  The  chief  cause  of  this,  though  indi¬ 
rectly,  while  he  was  the  direct  cause  in  a  great 
measure  of  the  future  prosperity  of  England,  was 
another  self-made,  but  a  very  different  man,  con- 


WILLIAM  PATERSON,  the  Founder  of  the  Bank  of  England. 


1 


William  Paterson. 


169 


temporary  with  Thomas  Guy.  The  man  was  Wil¬ 
liam  Paterson,  the  founder  of  the  Bank  of  England. 

William  Paterson,  a  native  of  Dumfries,  was  born 
in  April,  1658.  He  came  to  London,  and  became 
a  member  of  the  Merchant  Tailors’  Company  in 
1681,  but  the  few  years  following  that  date  were 
passed  by  him  in  America  and  the  West  Indies. 
He  was  in  London  again  in  1686,  and  from  that 
time  he  took  up  his  position  as  an  influential,  though 
not  as  a  very  prosperous,  merchant.  He  is  chiefly 
famous  for  his  ill-fated  effort  to  establish  a  Scottish 
colony  in  the  Isthmus  of  Darien.  In  two  other 
favorite  projects  he  was  more  successful.  He  was 
through  a  great  many  years  a  zealous  advocate  of 
the  union  of  England  and  Scotland,  which  had 
come  to  be  under  one  sovereign  since  the  time  of 
James  I.,  under  a  single  form  of  government ;  and 
the  adoption  of  tl^t  excellent  benefit  was  mainly 
the  result  of  his  labors.  His  other  project  was 
strictly  commercial.  Soon  after  the  accession  of 
William  and  Mary,  if  not  before,  he  began  to  urge 
the  establishment  of  a  National  Bank  of  England, 
akin  to  the  public  banks  already  set  up  in  Venice 
and  elsewhere.  Through  three  years  he  steadily 
recommended  this  enterprise  against  the  fierce 
opposition  of  private  and  public  enemies  to  it.  At 
length,  in  the  summer  of  1694,  the  Bank  of  En¬ 
gland  was  started,  meeting  first  in  the  new  Mercers’ 
Hall,  built  in  place  of  the  old  building  in  the  out¬ 
skirts  of  which  Guy  had  passed  his  ’prentice  days 
as  a  bookseller.  Afterward,  until  the  growth  of 


170  The  Bank  of  England. 

the  business  made  it  necessary  for  a  separate  build¬ 
ing  to  be  set  up,  the  Bank  had  a  larger  and  more 
permanent  dwelling-place  in  the  Grocers’  Hall, 
where  Addison  once  saw  fifty-four  clerks  at  work 
in  one  long  room.  “  I  looked,”  he  says,  “  into  the 
great  hall,  where  the  bank  is  kept ;  and  was  not  a 
little  pleased  to  see  the  directors,  secretaries,  and 
clerks,  with  all  the  other  members  of  that  wealthy 
corporation,  ranged  in  their  several  stations,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  parts  which  they  hold  in  that  just 
and  regular  economy.” 

The  establishment  of  the  Bank  of  England  was 
of  immense  benefit  to  commerce  and  society.  The 
first  bankers,  from  the  times  of  Whittington  to 
those  of  Herrick  and  his  successors,  were,  in  their 
capacity  of  bankers,  little  more  than  pawnbrokers. 
When  kings,  nobles,  and  others  wanted  money, 
they  brought  their  jewels,  title-bleeds,  and  the  like, 
to  those  who  had  gold  to  lend,  and  left  them  as 
security  for  whatever  they  borrowed.  Whether 
the  pledge  was  given  in  paper  or  in  solid  money’s 
worth,  bills,  and  every  other'  sort  of  paper  currency, 
as  we  now  understand  the  terms,  were  for  a  long 
time  unknown  or  unused.  Until  the  money  was 
repaid,  the  security  was  locked  up,  and  not  allowed 
to  come  into  the  market.  By  this  plan  of  tying 
up  great  quantities  of  capital,  the  mercantile  com¬ 
munity  was  seriously  damaged,  although  one  class 
— especially  since  the  days  of  George  Heriot  and 
Sir  William  Herrick — the  class  of  goldsmiths,  was 
greatly  enriched  and  advanced  in  influence.  In 


Primitive  Banking. 


1 7 1 

attempting  to  remedy  this  evil,  the  London  mer¬ 
chants  fell  into  another  as  great.  The  extrava¬ 
gances  of  life  under  the  gay  rule  of  the  Stuarts, 
and  the  risk  which  private  individuals  felt  in  keep¬ 
ing  money  in  their  own  hands  during  the  trouble¬ 
some  times  both  of  the  Rebellion  and  of  the  Res¬ 
toration,  brought  immense  quantities  of  coin  and 
bullion  into  the  keeping  of  the  goldsmiths  and  other 
rich  men  of  Lombard  Street  and  its  neighborhood. 
Having  begun  as  mere  money-lenders,  they  came 
to  be  money-keepers  as  well.  They  not  only  lent 
great  sums  of  money  in  return  for  paper  bonds, 
but  they  also  took  charge  of  vast  quantities  of 
wealth,  for  which,  in  like  manner,  they  issued  paper 
bonds.  Thus  it  became  natural  and  necessary  for 
the  paper  to  be  used  as  money ;  and  no  sooner 
was  the  custom  begun,  than  its  convenience,  both 
to  the  honest  and  to  the  dishonest,  led  to  its  adop¬ 
tion  to  an  unreasonable  and  dangerous  extent. 
Half  the  gold  in  the  kingdom  came  to  be  stowed 
away  in  the  goldsmiths’  vaults,  and  the  buying  and 
selling  of  ordinary  merchants  and  tradesmen  was 
carried  on  almost  exclusively  by  means  of  paper. 
Both  for  giving  and  for  receiving  bullion  the  bank¬ 
ers  or  money-agents  charged  high  rates  of  interest, 
and  so  enriched  themselves,  to  the  disparagement 
of  their  neighbors  ;  and  the  public,  while  paying 
dearly  lor  these  privileges,  ran  the  risk  of  losing 
their  wealth  through  the  failure  or  defalcation  of 
the  men  to  whom  they  intrusted  it.  When  Sir 
Dudley  North  came  home  from  Constantinople, 


172 


Irregular  Bankers. 


we  are  told,  he  was  greatly  astonished  at  the  new 
and  irregular  banking  customs  which  had  been  in¬ 
troduced  during  his  absence.  For  a  long  time  he 
refused  to  lodge  his  money  in  the  goldsmiths’  hands, 
preferring  to  “  have  his  own  cash-keeper  ”  in  his 
own  counting-house,  “  as  merchants  used  to  do.” 
“His  friends,”  it  is  added,  “wondered  at  this,  as 
if  he  did  not  know  his  own  interest.”  At  last  he, 
too,  found  it  necessary  to  follow  the  fashion.  “  In 
the  latter  end  of  his  time,  when  he  dealt  more  in 
trusts  and  mortgages  than  in  merchandise,  he  saw 
a  better  custom,  and  used  the  shop  of  Sir  Francis 
Child,  at  Temple  Bar,  for  paying  and  receiving  all 
his  great  sums.” 

Sir  Francis  Child,  the  first  regular  private  bank¬ 
er,  “  the  father  of  his  profession,”  was  a  safe  guard¬ 
ian  of  the  money  intrusted  to  him  ;  and  so  were 
many  of  his  rivals  and  contemporaries.  But  many 
of  the  new  sort  of  bankers  were  by  no  means  safe, 
and  much  risk  was  incurred  by  those  who  intrusted 
their  wealth  to  them.  It  was  to  remedy  or  im¬ 
prove  upon  this  state  of  things  that  the  Bank  of 
England  was  started,  at  William  Paterson’s  sug¬ 
gestion,  in  1694,  and  it  was  wonderfully  successful. 
It  became,  not  only  the  Bank  of  the  State,  serving 
as  the  depositary  of  the  public  revenues,  but  also 
the  centre  of  all  the  vast  financial  machinery  which 
has  since  been  developed  for  the  convenience  and 
profit  of  merchants,  and  all  who  share  in  their 
prosperity.  At  its  foundation  it  received  power 
to  deal  in  bills  of  exchange,  bullion,  and  public 


William  Paterson's  Bank.  173 

and  private  bonds,  and,  in  lieu  of  the  old  irregular 
and  cumbrous  securities  which  were  given  by  the 
private  bankers,  to  issue  bank-notes,  which  could  be 
passed  from  hand  to  hand  as  easily  as  gold  and 
silver,  and  converted  at  any  time  into  actual  coin. 

Being  established  just  at  the  dawn  of  those  for¬ 
tunate  times  which  were  come  for  England  by  the 
great  Rebellion,  and  the  setting  up  of  William  III. 
in  place  of  James  II.,  it  greatly  helped  the  exten¬ 
sion  of  that  regenerated  commerce  which  Addison 
described  so  vividly  in  1711.  “If  we  consider 
our  own  country  in  its  natural  prospect,”  he  wrote, 
“  without  any  of  the  benefits  and  advantages  of 
commerce,  what  an  uncomfortable  spot  of  earth 
falls  to  our  share  !  Natural  historians  tell  us  that 
no  fruit  grows  originally  among  us,  besides  hips 
and  haws,  acorns  and  pig-nuts,  with  other  delica¬ 
cies  of  the  like  nature ;  that  our  climate  of  itself, 
and  without  the  assistance  of  art,  can  make  no 
farther  advances  toward  a  plum  than  a  sloe,  and 
carries  an  apple  to  no  greater  perfection  than  a 
crab  ;  that  our  melons,  our  peaches,  our  figs,  our 
apricots,  and  cherries  are  strangers  among  us,  im¬ 
ported  in  different  ages,  and  naturalized  in  our  En¬ 
glish  gardens  ;  and  that  they  would  all  degenerate 
and  fall  away  into  the  taste  of  our  country,  if  they 
were  wholly  neglected  by  the  planter,  and  left  tov 
the  mercy  of  our  sun  and  soil.  Nor  has  traffic 
more  enriched  our  vegetable  world  than  it  has  im¬ 
proved  the  whole  face  of  nature  among  us.  Our 
ships  are  laden  with  the  harvest  of  every  climate  ; 


i74 


The  Benefits  of  Commerce 


our  tables  are  stored  with  spices  and  oils  and 
wines  ;  our  rooms  are  filled  with  pyramids  of  chi¬ 
na  and  adorned  with  workmanship  of  Japan ;  our 
morning’s  draught  comes  from  the  remotest  cor¬ 
ners  of  the  earth  ;  we  repair  our  bodies  by  the 
drugs  of  America,  and  repose  ourselves  under  In¬ 
dian  canopies.  The  vineyards  of  France  are  our 
gardens,  the  Spice  Islands  our  hot-beds ;  the  Per¬ 


sians  are  our  weavers,  and  the  Chinese  our  pot¬ 
ters.  Nature  indeed  furnishes  us  with  the  bare 
necessities  of  life ;  but  traffic  gives  us  a  great  va¬ 
riety  of  what  is  useful,  and  at  the  same  time  sup¬ 
plies  us  with  every  thing  that  is  convenient  and  or¬ 
namental.  For  these  reasons  there  are  not  more 
useful  members  in  a  commonwealth  than  mer- 
,  chants.  They  knit  mankind  together  in  a  mutual 
intercourse  of  good  offices,  distribute  the  gifts  of 
nature,  find  work  for  the  poor,  add  wealth  to  the 
rich,  and  magnificence  to  the  great.  Our  English 
merchant  converts  the  tin  of  his  own  country  into 


In  the  Eighteenth  Century.  175 

gold,  and  exchanges  his  wool  for  rubies.  The  Mo¬ 
hammedans  are  clothed  in  our  British  manufac¬ 
ture,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  frozen  zone  are 
warmed  with  the  fleeces  of  our  sheep.  When  I 
have  been  upon  ’Change  I  have  often  fancied  one 
of  our  old  kings  standing  in  person  where  he  is 
represented  in  effigy,  and  looking  down  upon  the 
wealthy  concourse  of  people  with  which  that  place 
is  every  day  filled.  In  this  case  how  would  he 
be  surprised  to  hear  all  the  languages  of  Europe 
spoken  in  this  little  spot  of  his  former  dominions, 
and  to  see  so  many  private  men,  who,  in  his  time, 
would  have  been  the  vassals  of  some  powerful  bar¬ 
on,  negotiating  like  princes  for  greater  sums  of 
money  than  were  formerly  to  be  met  with  in  the 
royal  treasury !  Trade,  without  enlarging  the 
British  territories,  has  given  us  a  kind  of  addition¬ 
al  empire.  It  has  multiplied  the  number  of  the 
rich,  made  our  landed  estates  infinitely  more  val¬ 
uable  than  they  were  formerly,  and  added  to  them 
an  accession  of  other  estates  as  valuable  as  the 
lands  themselves.” 

In  helping  to  establish  that  noble  empire  of 
trade,  which  is  now  twenty  times  as  extensive  and 
powerful  as  it  was  in  Addison’s  day,  the  Bank  of 
England^  also  gave  accidental  encouragment  to  a 
new  branch  of  trade  which  for  the  most  part  was 
very  mischievous.  The  new  impetus  in  lawful 
money-making  gave  birth  to  all  sorts  of  more  or 
less  unlawful  money-making.  “  Some  of  them,” 
according  to  a  contemporary  authority,  “  were  very 


176  The  Stock- Jobbing  Mania . 

useful  and  successful  while  they  continued  in  a 
few  hands,  till  they  fell  into  stock-jobbing,  now 
much  introduced,  when  they  dwindled  into  noth¬ 
ing.  Others  of  them,  and  these  the  greater  num¬ 
ber,  were  mere  whims,  of  little  or  no  service  to  the 
world.  Moreover,  projects,  as  usual,  begat  proj¬ 
ects  ;  lottery  upon  lottery,  engine  upon  engine, 
etc.,  multiplied  wonderfully.  If  it  happened  that 
any  one  person  got  considerably  by  a  happy  and 
useful  invention,  the  consequence  generally  was 
that  others  followed  the  track,  in  spite  of  the  pat¬ 
ent  ;  thus  going  on  to  jostle  out  one  another,  and 
to  abuse  the  credulity  of  the  people.”  “  London 
at  this  time,”  says  another  historian,  of  the  yea*r 
1698,  “  abounded  with  many  new  projects  and 
schemes  promising  mountains  of  gold  ;  the  Royal 
Exchange  was  crowded  with  projects,  wagers,  airy 
companies  of  new  manufactures  and  inventions, 
and  stock-jobbers  and  the  like.” 

In  that  year,  indeed,  stock-jobbing  became  so 
extensive  a  business  that  it  had  to  find  a  separate 
home  in  ’Change  Alley.  The  business  advanced 
each  year,  in  spite  of  the  angry  but  well-merited 
denunciation  of  it  in  Parliament  and  the  pulpit,  in 
learned  treatises  and  vigorous  pamphlets  without 
number.  “  It  is  a  complete  system  of  knavery,” 
we  read  in  one  work,  “  founded  in  fraud,  born  of 
deceit,  and  nourished  by  trickeries,  forgeries,  false¬ 
hoods,  and  all  sorts  of  delusions,  coining  false 
news, f  whispering  imaginary  terrors,  and  preying 
upon  those  they  have  elevated  and  depressed.” 


Knaves  and  Fools. 


177 


‘‘The  stock-jobbers,”  says  another,  “can  ruin 
men  silently ;  they  undermine  and  impoverish 
them,  and  fiddle  them  out  of  their  money  by  the 
strange,  unheard-of  engines  of 'interest,  discount, 
transfers,  tallies,  debentures,  shares,  projects,  and 
the  devil-and-all  of  figures  and  hard  names.”  “  The 
poor  English,”  writes  a  third,  “  run  a-madding  aft¬ 
er  new  inventions,  whims,  and  projects  ;  and  this 
ingredient  my  dear  countrymen  have — they  are  vi¬ 
olent,  and  prosecute  their  projects  eagerly.” 

When  all  business  was  regarded  as  a  game  of 
chance,  in  which  the  professed  money-makers 
played  with  loaded  dice,  it  is  not  strange  that 
senseless  speculations  of  all  sorts  should  be  wild¬ 
ly  entered  upon.  “  Several  evil-disposed  persons,” 
it  was  averred  in  an  Act  of  Parliament  passed  in 
1698,  “for  divers  years  last  passed  have  set  up 
many  mischievous  and  unlawful  games,  called  lot¬ 
teries,  not  only  in  the  cities  of  London  and  West¬ 
minster,  and  in  the  suburbs  thereof  and  places  ad¬ 
joining,  but  in  most  of  the  eminent  towns  and 
places  in  England  and  Wales,  and  have  thereby 
most  unjustly  and  fraudulently  got  to  themselves 
great  sums  of  money  from  the  children  and  serv¬ 
ants  of  several  gentlemen,  traders,  and  merchants, 
and  from  other  unwary  persons,  to  the  utter  ruin 
and  impoverishment  of  many  families,  and  to  the 
reproach  of  the  English  laws  and  government.” 

But  before  long  the  English  Government  itself 
proceeded  to  organize  the  most  gigantic  lottery 
ever  known.  In  17 11,  the  Earl  of  Oxford,  who 

M 


178  The  South  Sea  Company. 

was  Lord  Treasurer,  finding  the  State  burdened 
with  ^10,000,000  worth  of  debts  and  deficiencies, 
hit  upon  a  wonderful  expedient  for  tiding  over  the 
difficulty.  He  saw  that  people’s  heads  were  turn¬ 
ed  by  the  exaggerated  talk  of  buccaneers  and  oth¬ 
er  roving  adventurers  respecting  the  boundless 
wealth  to  be  obtained  by  search  and  settlement  in 
the  seas  and  coast-land  of  South  America.  There¬ 
fore  he  procured  an  Act  of  Parliament  appointing 
that,  “  to  the  intent  that  the  trade  to  the  South 
Seas  be  carried  on  for  the  honor  and  increase  of 
the  wealth  and  riches  of  this  realm,”  a  company 
should  be  formed,  having  for  its  members  all  those 
to  whom  the  State  was  indebted,  with  the  exclu¬ 
sive  privilege  of  trading,  colonizing,  and  fighting 
in  the  southern  seas  from  Tierra  del  Fuego  to 
the  northernmost  part  of  South  America.  The 
Company  was  to  be  aided  by  State  influence, 
and,  if  necessary,  by  the  protection  of  the  British 
army,  besides  having  various  profitable  imposts 
assigned  to  it.  In  this  way,  it  was  represented, 
the  public  creditors  would  obtain  interest  for 
their  loans  without  any  expense  to  the  nation, 
and  some  money,  it  was  even  hoped,  would  be 
saved,  to  go  toward  a  fund  for  sinking  the  na¬ 
tional  debt. 

The  company  was  straightway  formed,  and  had 
a  quiet  and  tolerably  harmless  existence  till  1720, 
“  a  year,”  says  the  contemporary  historian,  “  re¬ 
markable  beyond  any  other  which  can  be  pitched 
upon  for  extraordinary  and  romantic  projects,  pro- 


The  Climax  of  Stock- fobbing.  179 

posals,  and  undertakings,  both  private  and  nation¬ 
al,  and  which  therefore  ought  to  be  had  in  perpet¬ 
ual  remembrance,  as  it  may  serve  for  a  perpetual 
memento  to  legislators  never  to  leave  it  in  the 
power  of  any  hereafter  to  hoodwink  mankind  into 
so  shameful  and  baneful  an  imposition  on  the  cre¬ 
dulity  of  the  people,  thereby  diverted  from  their 
lawful  industry.”  In  1719,  Law’s  Mississippi 
scheme  had  been  at  its  height  in  France,  and  that 
example  gave  unheard-of  success  to  a  like  project 
of  the  South  Sea  Company’s.  The  Company  pro¬ 
posed  to  buy  up  the  whole  national  debt,  and  liq¬ 
uidate  it  by  means  of  paper-money,  and  the  pro¬ 
posal,  after  some  competition  on  the  part  of  the 
Bank  of  England,  was  accepted. 

Thereupon  ensued  a  scene  of  turmoil  and  dis¬ 
aster  unparalleled  in  commercial  history.  The 
South  Sea  stock  rose  to  a  fabulous  value,  and  the 
success  of  this  wicked  speculation  encouraged  a 
crowd  of  others  as  wicked.  “  Any  impudent  im¬ 
postor,”  says  the  historian,  speaking  from  his  own 
observation,  “  while  the  delusion  was  at  its  great¬ 
est  height,  needed  only  to  hire  a  room  at  some 
coffee-house  or  other  house  near  Exchange  Alley 
for  a  few  hours,  and  open  a  subscription-book  for 
somewhat  relative  to  commerce,  manufacture,  plan¬ 
tation,  or  some  supposed  invention,  either  newly 
hatched  out  of  his  own  brain,  or  else  stolen  from 
some  of  the  many  abortive  projects  of  former  times, 
having  first  advertised  it  in  the  newspapers  of  the 
preceding  day  ;  and  he  might,  in  a  few  hours,  find 


180  A  Year  of  Bubbles. 

% 

subscribers  for  one  or  two  millions,  in  some  cases 
more,  of  imaginary  stock.  Yet  many  of  those  very 
subscribers  were  far  from  believing  those  projects 
feasible.  It  was  enough  for  their  purpose  that 
there  would  very  soon  be  a  premium  on  the  re¬ 
ceipts  for  those  subscriptions,  when  they  generally 
got  rid  of  them  in  the  crowded  alleys  to  others 
more  credulous  than  themselves.”  It  was  noth¬ 
ing  uncommon  for  shares  to  be  sold  at  ten  per 
cent,  more  on  one  side  of  ’Change  Alley  than  on 
the  other,  or  to  rise  a  hundred  per  cent,  in  value 
in  the  course  of  a  few  hours.  At  one  time  the 
South  Sea  £\oo  shares  were  to  be  sold  for  ^iooo, 
while  East  India  stock  rose  from  £\oo  to  £445, 
and  African  stock  from  ^23  to  £200.  The  £\o 
shares  of  a  York  Buildings  Company  attained  the 
fictitious  value  of  ^305,  and  the  shares  of  a  Welsh 
Copper  Company,  without  having  a  penny  of  real 
capital,  originally  valued  at  £4  2 s.  6d.,  could  hard¬ 
ly  be  bought  for  ^95.  There  is  extant  a  list  of 
nearly  two  hundred  principal  bubble  companies 
started  in  this  year  of  bubbles,  “  none  of  which 
were  under  a  million,  and  some  went  ^is  far  as 
ten  millions.”  One  was  designed  to  make  salt 
water  fresh  ;  another,  to  furnish  merchants  with 
watches ;  a  third,  to  discover  perpetual  motion  ; 
a  fourth,  to  plant  mulberry-trees  and  breed  silk¬ 
worms  in  Chelsea  Park ;  and  a  fifth,  “  to  import 
a  number  of  large  jackasses  from  Spain,  in  order 
to  propagate  a  larger  kind  of  mules  in  England.” 
So  preposterous  were  many  of  the  bond  fide 


The  South  Sea  Bubble 


Thomas  Guy’s  Stock- Jobbing.  183 

schemes,  that  one  knows  not  whether  it  was  in  jest 
or  in  earnest  that  an  advertisement  was  issued  an¬ 
nouncing  that  “at  a  certain  place,  on  Tuesday 
next,  books  will  be  opened  for  a  subscription  of 
two  millions  for  the  invention  of  melting  saw-dust 
and  chips,  and  casting  them  into  clean  deal  boards, 
without  cracks  or  knots.” 

Well  might  Newton  say,  when  asked  what  all 
this  would  end  in,  that  “  he  could  calculate  the 
motions  of  erratic  bodies,  but  not  the  madness  of 
a  multitude.”  Men  had  not  long  to  wait,  however, 
before  the  issues  were  clear  to  every  one  ;  grievous 
ruin  to  thousands  upon  thousands  of  innocent  and 
foolish  speculators,  great  stagnation  to  the  general 
commerce  of  England,  and  an  ugly  blot  upon  the 
national  honor. 

Some  men,  however,  shared  without  dishonor 
in  the  speculations,  which  reached  their  climax  in 
the  South  Sea  Bubble,  and  thereby  became  very 
rich  ;  and  of  these  the  most  memorable  was  Thom¬ 
as  Guy.  Having  begun  to  make  money  by  selling 
Bibles,  as  we  saw,  before  the  establishment  of  the 
Bank  of  England,  he  used  it  to  make  more  money 
through  upward  of  thirty  years.  He  employed  his 
wealth  in  trading  in  Government  securities,  great 
and  small.  His  first  enterprise  of  this  sort,  accord¬ 
ing  to  tradition,  was  in  a  tolerably  humble  sort  of 
trade.  The  needy  agents  of  James  II.,  following 
an  example  of  long  standing,  were  in  the  habit  of 
paying  the  seamen  of  the  Royal  Navy,  not  in  cash, 
but  in  pay-tickets  or  promissory  notes,  for  which 


184  His  Ways  of  Money-Making. 

cash  was  to  be  given  at  a  distant  day.  As  the 
seamen  required  their  money  at  once,  it  was  usual 
for  them  to  sell  their  pay-tickets  as  soon  as  they 
were  received  for  whatever  they  could  get  for  them  ; 
and  Guy  is  said  to  have  found  it  a  very  lucrative 
business  to  buy  their  tickets  at  about  two-thirds 
of  their  nominal  value,  holding  them  till  they  be¬ 
came  due,  and  he  could  recover  the  whole  amount 
from  the  Government. 

If  he  did  so,  that  was  only  one  of  the  many  ways 
of  money-making  which  he  followed.  “  Former¬ 
ly,”  says  Macaulay,  “  when  the  Treasury  was 
empty,  when  the  taxes  came  in  slowly,  and  when 
the  pay  of  soldiers  and  sailors  was  in  arrear,  it 
was  necessary  for  the  Chancellor  of  the  Excheq¬ 
uer  to  go,  hat  in  hand,  up  and  down  Cheapside 
and  Cornhill,  attended  by  the  Lord  Mayor  and  by 
the  Aldermen,  to  make  up  a  sum  by  borrowing 
,£100  from  this  hosier,  and  £ 200  from  that  iron¬ 
monger.”  Throughout  James  II. ’s  reign,  until  the 
Bank  of  England  was  founded,  Guy  the  bookseller 
lent  much  money  to  the  Government  in  that  way, 
and  received  good  interest  for  it.  When  a  better 
state  of  things  was  introduced  with  the  bank,  Guy 
continued  to  lend  his  money  with  great  advantage 
upon  the  more  orderly  system  that  was  establish¬ 
ed.  He  was  one  of  the  first  contributors  to  the 
National  Debt,  which  was  formally  begun  in  1692. 
He  also  shared,  to  some  extent,  in  the  new  busi¬ 
ness  of  stock-jobbing  that  came  into  fashion  at 
about  the  same  time.  In  all  the  financial  specu- 


Thomas  Guy's  Later  Work.  185 

lations  of  the  day,  which  seemed  to  him  safe  and 
honorable,  he  freely  took  part.  In  1710,  just  when 
the  South  Sea  Company  was  coming  into  favor, 
and  when  its  £100  shares  were  to  be  bought  for 
£120  apiece,  he  was  possessed  of  .£45,500  worth 
of  its  stock.  Part  of  this  he  sold  when  the  shares 
were  worth  £300  apiece.  The  rest  he  kept  for  a 
few  years  more,  and  disposed  of  when  he  could 
get  £600  for  each  of  them.  In  ways  of  this  sort 
he  amassed  great  wealth. 

And  he  used  it  well.  Having  become  a  man 
of  mark,  he  entered  Parliament  in  1695,  and  re¬ 
tained  his  seat  in  1707,  if  not  longer.  “As  he 
was  a  man  of  unbounded  charity  and  universal 
benevolence,”  says  his  first  biographer,  “so  he 
was  likewise  a  great  patron  of  liberty  and  the  rights 
of  his  fellow-subjects  ;  which,  to  his  great  honor, 
he  strenuously  asserted  in  divers  Parliaments, 
whereof  he  was  a  member.”  He  sat  in  the  House 
of  Commons  as  Member  for  Tamworth,  his  moth¬ 
er’s  birth-place,  in  which  he  seems  to  have  held 
property,  and  in  which  he  always  took  a  great  in¬ 
terest.  In  1705  he  built  and  endowed  some  alms¬ 
houses  there  for  fourteen  poor  men  and  women, 
with  pensions  for  each  occupier ;  and  to  that  com¬ 
mon  form  of  charity  he  added  the  then  unusual 
and  excellent  one  of  establishing  a  good  free  library 
for  the  poor.  In  1707  he  added  three  new  wards 
to  the  old  Hospital  of  St.  Thomas,  in  Southwark, 
the  relic  of  an  ancient  monastery,  which  has  lately 
been  reconstructed  near  to  Westminster  Bridge. 


i86 


Guy's  Hospital. 


Other  minor  charities  were  done  by  him  all  through 
the  time  of  his  prosperity. 

But  his  greatest  act  of  charity  was  reserved  to 
the  last.  In  1720,  when  he  was  seventy-six,  he 
made  abouf,  £300,000  by  profitable  speculations 
in  the  course  of  three  months.  That  money  he 
resolved  to  spend  in  building  and  endowing  a 
new  hospital,  and  his  project  was  nobly  carried 
through.  When  he  died  in  1724  the  roof  was  be¬ 
ing  put  to  Guy’s  Hospital,  the  construction  of 
which  cost  him  ,£19,000;  and  the  £220,000  with 
which  he  endowed  it  has  enabled  it  to  continue 
to  this  day  as  a  splendid  monument  of  his  wealth, 
and  of  his  wise  application  of  it. 


Peter  Beckford. 


187 


IX. 

WILLIAM  BECKFORD. 

[1708-1770.] 

T  N  Jamaica,  once  the  most  prosperous  of  the  West 
1  Indian  Islands,  one  of  the  first  and  most  influ¬ 
ential  colonists  was  Colonel  Peter  Beckford,  a  sol¬ 
dier,  who  made  much  wealth  as  a  planter,  and 
spent  it  as  a  local  statesman  and  grandee.  By 
Charles  II.  he  was  made  President  of  the  Island 
Council,  and  under  William  III.  he  was  Lieutenant- 
governor  and  Commander-in-chief.  He  died,  very 
♦  old  and  very  rich,  in  1710.  Further  wealth  was 
accumulated  by  his  son,  also  named  Peter,  who 
died  in  1735.  Besides  other  property,  he  owned 
twenty-four  large  estates  and  twelve  hundred  slaves. 

The  famous  Alderman  Beckford  of  London  was 
one  of  thirteen  children  of  this  second  Peter  Beck¬ 
ford  of  Jamaica.  He  was  born  in  1708.  At  the 
age  of  twelve  or  thirteen  he  was  sent  to  England, 
and  the  next  few  years  were  spent  by  him  at  West¬ 
minster  School.  There  he  took  rank  with  the 
cleverest  boys,  two  of  his  friends  and  rivals  being 
Lord  Mansfield  and  Lord  Kinnoul.  Then  he  set¬ 
tled  down  as  a  London  merchant,  at  first  finding 
his  chief  employment  in  selling  the  sugar,  rum, 
and  other  products  of  his  father’s  Jamaica  estates, 
and  soon  extending  that  business  so  as  to  become 


i88 


The  New  World. 


the  most  influential  West  Indian  and  American 
merchant  of  his  day. 

That  was  a  branch  of  commerce  that  had  grown 
mightily  since  its  beginning,  in  the  days  of  Sir 
Thomas  Smythe.  The  troubles  to  which  English¬ 
men — and  especially  Puritan  Englishmen — were 
subjected  under  Charles  I.  had  helped  it  greatly. 

“  The  land  is  weary  of  her  inhabitants,’’  said  the 
old  Puritans,  in  justification  of  their  retirement 
from  England  ;  “  so  that  man,  which  is  the  most 
precious  of  all  creatures,  is  here  more  vile  and  base 
than  the  earth  we  tread  upon  ;  so  as  children, 
neighbors,  and  friends,  especially  the  poor,  are  ac¬ 
counted  the  greatest  burdens ;  which,  if  things 
were  right,  would  be  the  highest  earthly  blessings. 
Hence  it  comes  to  pass  that  all  arts  and  trades  . 
are  carried  on  in  that  deceitful  manner  and  un¬ 
righteous  course,  as  it  is  almost  impossible  for  a 
good,  upright  man  to  maintain  his  charge  in  any 
of  them.”  That  was  the  language  of  the  first  col¬ 
onists  of  New  England.  Therefore  they  carried 
their  arts  and  trades  to  America  ;  and  there,  though 
failing  to  practice  them  with  entire  freedom  from 
the  “  deceitful  manner  and  unrighteous  course  ” 
of  their  opponents  in  religion  and  politics,  succeed¬ 
ed  in  establishing  a  very  influential  centre  of  civ¬ 
ilization  and  commerce.  With  ample  stores  of 
timber,  copper,  and  iron,  and  with  facilities  for 
gathering  in  great  quantities  of  fish,  corn,  and 
wool,  they  began  a  profitable  trade  with  the  moth¬ 
er-country  soon  after  the  restoration  of  Charles 


English  Colo?iies  in  America.  189 

II.,  and  have  continued  famous  traders  ever 
since.  In  Charles  II.’s  reign,  too,  Pennsylvania 
and  New  York  were  founded,  mainly  by  people 
whose  religious  grievances  led  them  to  follow  the 
example  of  the  Puritans  of  New  England.  The 
Carolinas,  and  the  other  members  of  what  are  now 
the  United  States,  were  founded  afterward  in  quick 
succession ;  some  of  them  by  successors  of  the 
Cavaliers,  who,  having  driven  the  Puritans  and 
Quakers  across  the  Atlantic,  were  encouraged,  by 
their  great  success  in  their  new  homes,  to  go  and 
carry  on  a  more  friendly  rivalry  with  them  in  the 
same  neighborhood.  All  these  States,  however 
widely  they  differed  from  one  another  in  religion, 
in  politics,  and  in  ways  of  life,  vied  with  one  an¬ 
other  in  commercial  activity,  and  in  the  prosperity 
that  was  easily  secured  by  it.  Almost  more  im¬ 
portant  at  first  were  the  English  settlements  which 
grew  up  during  the  same  period  in  the  West  Indian 
Islands — Barbadoes,  the  great  sugar  colony,  and 
Jamaica,  the  great  producer  of  rum,  being  the 
chief  of  them. 

In  1731,  just  at  the  time  when  William  Beckford 
came  to  London  to  be  schooled  as  an  English  mer¬ 
chant  and  statesman,  the  American  and  West  In¬ 
dian  colonies  were  in  a  state  of  prosperity  which 
dazzled  the  eyes  of  all  on-lookers.  Massachusetts 
alone  dispatched  in  a  single  year  more  than  three 
hundred  ship-loads  of  rum,  molasses,  salt,  and  fish 
to  Europe.  Virginia  and  Maryland  sent  home  vast 
quantities  of  tobacco,  grain,  skins,  and  timber.  Tim- 


190  Growth  of  the  Colo  flies. 

ber,  too,  was  supplied  in  countless  ships  by  New 
England ;  and  grain,  with  a  score  of  other  useful 
articles,  by  Pennsylvania  and  New  York.  One 
year’s  stock  of  sugar  from  Barbadoes,  amounting 
to  10,000  tons,  gave  employment  to  a  thousand  En¬ 
glish  seamen;  and  besides  an  equal  quantity  of 
sugar,  Jamaica  furnished  large  cargoes  of  rum,  log¬ 
wood,  and  spices.  Both  Jamaica  and  Barbadoes 
were  famous  “  for  having  given  to  many  men  of 
low  degree  exceeding  vast  fortunes,  equal  to  no¬ 
blemen,  by  carrying  goods  and  passengers  thither, 
and  bringing  thence  other  commodities,  whereby 
seamen  are  bred,  and  custom  increased,  and  com¬ 
modities  vended,  and  many  thousands  employed 
therein.” 

It  was  not  only  seamen  and  sea-farers  who  prof¬ 
ited  by  this  wonderful  growth  of  commerce.  The 
mother-country  was  enriched  quite  as  much  as 
her  children  in  the  colonies  by  the  interchange  of 
new  and  old  commodities.  In  every  branch  of 
English  trade  employment  was  found  for  a  great 
many  more  laborers  of  all  grades.  “  As  the  trad¬ 
ing,  middling  sort  of  people  in  England  are  rich,” 
said  Daniel  Defoe,  the  author  of  “  Robinson  Cru¬ 
soe,”  in  1728,  u  so  the  laboring,  manufacturing  peo¬ 
ple  under  them  are  infinitely  richer  than  the  same 
class  of  people  in  any  other  nation  in  the  world. 
As  they  are  richer,  so  they  live  better,  fare  better, 
wear  better,  and  spend  more  money  than  they  do 
in  any  other  countries.  They  eat  well,  and  they 
drink  well.  For  their  eating  of  flesh  meat,  ’tis  a 


The  Growth  of  Com?nerce.  19 1 

fault  even  to  profusion ;  as  to  their  drink,  ’tis  gen¬ 
erally  stout,  strong  beer  ;  not  to  take  notice  of  the 
quantity,  which  is  sometimes  a  little  too  much.  For 
the  rest,  we  see  their  houses  and  lodgings  tolerably 
furnished ;  at  least,  stuffed  well  with  useful  and 
necessary  household  goods.  Even  those  we  call 
poor  people,  journeymen,  working  and  painstaking 
people,  do  this  ;  they  lie  warm,  live  in  plenty,  work 
hard,  and  know  no  want.  ’Tis  by  these  that  the 
wheels  of  trade  are  set  on  foot.  ’Tis  by  the  large¬ 
ness  of  their  gettings  that  they  are  supported.  Are 
we  a  rich,  a  populous,  a  powerful  nation,  and  in 
some  respects  the  greatest  in  all  those  particulars 
in  the  world,  and  do  we  not  boast  of  being  so  ?  ’Tis 
evident  it  was  all  derived  from  trade.  Our  mer¬ 
chants  are  princes,  greater  and  richer  and  more 
powerful  than  some  sovereign  princes ;  and,  in  a 
word,  as  is  said  of  Tyre,  we  ‘  have  made  the  kings 
of  the  earth  rich  with  our  merchandise that  is, 
with  our  trade.”  “  If  usefulness  gives  an  addition 
to  the  character,  either  of  men  or  of  things,  as  with¬ 
out  doubt  it  does,  trading  men  will  have  the  pref¬ 
erence  in  almost  all  the  disputes  you  can  bring. 
There  is  not  a  nation  in  the  known  world  but  have 
tasted  the  benefit,  and  owe  their  prosperity  to  the 
useful  improvement,  of  commerce.  Even  the  self- 
vain  gentry,  that  would  decry  trade  as  a  universal 
mechanism,  are  they  not  everywhere  depending 
upon  it  for  their  most  necessary  supplies  ?  If  they 
do  not  all  sell,  they  are  all  forced  to  buy,  and  so 
are  a  kind  of  traders  themselves ;  at  least  they  rec- 


192 


William  Beckford. 


ognize  the  usefulness  of  commerce,  as  what  they 
are  not  able  to  live  comfortably  without.  Trade  en¬ 
courages  manufacture,  prompts  invention,  employs 
people,  increases  labor,  and  pays  wages.  As  the 
people  are  employed  they  are  paid,  and  by  that 
pay  are  fed,  clothed,  kept  in  heart,  and  kept  to¬ 
gether.  As  the  consumption  of  provisions  increases, 
more  lands  are  cultivated,  waste  grounds  are  in¬ 
closed,  woods  are  grubbed,  forests  and  common 
lands  are  tilled  and  improved.  By  this,  more  farm¬ 
ers  are  brought  together,  more  farm-houses  and 
cottages  are’built,  and  more  trades  are  called  upon 
to  supply  the  necessary  demands  of  husbandry. 
In  a  word,  as  land  is  employed,  the  people  increase 
of  course,  and  thus  trade  sets  all  the  wheels  of  im¬ 
provement  in  motion ;  for,  from  the  original  of 
business  to  this  day,  it  appears  that  the  prosperity 
of  a  nation  rises  and  falls  just  as  trade  is  support¬ 
ed  or  decayed.” 

That  panegyric  of  trade,  spoken  a  hundred  and 
forty  years  ago,  is  no  less  true  of  the  commerce  of 
the  present ;  and  now,  as  then,  a  famous  part  of 
the  benefits  of  English  commerce  must  be  traced 
to  the  wise  colonization  of  America  and  the  West 
Indies,  and  the  increased  employments  that  it 
made  necessary.  The  earlier  Beckfords  did  much 
to  help  it  on  as  far  as  Jamaica  was  concerned,  and 
William  Beckford  came  to  London  in  time  to  enjoy 
some  of  its  first  fruits. 

He  was  enabled  to  do  this  most  successfully 
through  the  death  of  his  elder  brother  Peter  in 


His  Wealth  and  Work .  193 

1737,  whereby  the  great  wealth  accumulated  by 
his  father  and  grandfather,  amounting  to  ^10,000 
a  year,  passed  into  his  hands.  Till  he  was  about 
forty,  he  seems  to  have  applied  himself  closely  to 
business.  Then  having  made  sure  his  standing  in 
the  world  of  commerce,  he  followed  the  example 
of  Sir  John  Barnard  and  other  London  worthies, 
in  accepting  civic  honors,  and  entering  upon  a 
Parliamentary  career.  In  1747  he  was  elected 
member  of  Parliament  for  both  London  and  Peters- 
field.  He  chose  to  sit  for  the  metropolis ;  but,  in 
recognition  of  the  honor  shown  to  him  by  Peters- 
held,  he  gave  ^400  toward  re-paving  its  streets. 

He  sat  for  London  during  three-and-twenty 
years,  and  throughout  that  time  he  was  a  zealous 
champion  of  free  trade,  as  far  as  free  trade  was 
then  understood,  and  of  commercial  interests. 
That  was  especially  the  case  with  the  first  speech 
delivered  by  him  in  the  House  of  Commons  in 
February,  1748,  on  the  occasion  of  a  scheme  for 
raising  money  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  European 
war  in  which  England  was  then  engaged,  by  levy¬ 
ing  fresh.  taxes  upon  imported  goods.  Beckford 
ably  exposed  the  mischievous  effect  of  the  scheme 
in  crippling  trade  and,  consequently,  the  comfort 
of  the  people  at  home,  and  in  yet  more  seriously 
injuring  the  American  and  West  Indian  colonies ; 
and  with  characteristic  impetuosity  proposed  that 
the  funds  should  be  raised  by  forcing  all  the  of¬ 
ficers  and  pensioners  of  the  Crown,  including 
judges  and  clergymen,  to  give  up  half  of  all  their 

N 


194 


Beckford  in  Parliament. 


stipends.  Another  memorable  speech  of  his  was 
in  1751,  in  opposition  to  the  standing  army  which 
was  at  that  time  being  formed  in  England,  to  re¬ 
place  the  old  plan  of  military  service,  which  our 
modern  militia  and  volunteer  corps  are  partly  re¬ 
viving.  With  like  boldness,  and,  in  spite  of  occa¬ 
sional  extravagance,  with  much  sound  sense,  Beck- 
ford  spoke  in  other  years  on  all  sorts  of  subjects 
connected  with  trade  and  the  welfare  of  the  nation. 
Sympathizing  with  the  most  advanced  Whigs  of 
his  time,  he  was  a  stanch  friend  and  adviser  of  the 
elder  William  Pitt  before  he  became  a  Tory,  and 
the  private  friendship  lasted  after  the  change  of 
politics.  This  epigram,  circulated  during  the  elec¬ 
tion  time  of  1761,  illustrates  the  estimation  in 
which  he  was  held  by  most  of  his  contemporaries. 

“Augusta,  see  !  Behold  Pitt’s  generous  friend, 

Whom  all  the  patriot  virtues  recommend  ; 

Idear  every  tongue  proclaim  him  good  and  great, 
Rendering  the  hero  and  the  man  complete.” 

“The  different  characters  he  affected  to  possess, 
to  reconcile  with  each  other,  and  sometimes  to 
blend  in  one  motley  mass/’  it  was  said  by  a  less 
hearty  admirer  of  Beckford,  “  would  furnish  a  most 
curious  subject  for  the  biographer.  He  was  an 
eminent  West  India  planter  and  merchant,  a  mem¬ 
ber  of  Parliament,  a  militia  officer,  a  provincial 
magistrate,  an  alderman  of  London,  a  man  of 
taste  and  dissipation.  Mr.  Beckford  wanted  the 
external  graces  of  manners  and  expression;  adorn¬ 
ed  with  these  accomplishments,  he  would  have 


His  Rough  Bearing. 


r95 


made  a  first-rate  figure.  He  possessed  a  sound 
understanding,  and  very  extensive  knowledge  of 
British  politics,  especially  that  important  part  of  it 
which  relates  to  trade  and  commerce ;  nor  did  he 
ever  disgrace  himself  by  a  variableness  or  incon¬ 
sistency  of  conduct  His  manners  were  not  pleas¬ 
ant  ;  but  this  circumstance  did  not  arise  so  much 
from  a  crabbed  disposition,  as  from  an  ardent,  im¬ 
petuous  turn  of  mind,  whose  favor  he  always  in¬ 
dulged.  This  impetuous  animation,  accompanied 
with  an  inharmonious  voice  and  vehemence  of 
action,  prevented  his  public  speaking,  as  well  as 
his  private  conversation,  from  receiving  that  at¬ 
tention  and  affording  that  pleasure  which,  from 
his  knowledge  and  abilities,  they  might  be  sup¬ 
posed  to  have  deserved  and  produced.  In  the 
House  of  Commons  he  oftentimes  called  forth  the 
laughter,  and  frequently  promoted  the  languor,  of 
his  audience,  from  no  other  cause  than  the  neg¬ 
lect  of  digesting  and  arranging  the  matter  he  de¬ 
livered.” 

Beckfordwas  more  popular  in  the  City  of  London 
than  in  Westminster.  His  unpruned  eloquence 
was  more  to  the  taste  of  the  mercantile  classes, 
which,  whether  high  or  low,  were  then  rough  alike, 
than  to  the  House  of  Commons  or  the  gentlefolk 
of  the  West  End.  His  genuine  honesty  and  stout 
love  of  English  liberty,  too,  were  of  a  sort  to  be 
better  liked  by  citizens  than  by  courtiers  under 
the  House  of  Hanover.  They  chose  him  for  their 
representative,  without  coercion,  and  because  of 


ig6  Beckjord's  Political  Honesty. 

his  honesty.  “  It  has  been  told  me,”  he  said  at 
one  of  his  election  speeches,  that  I  have  given  of¬ 
fense  to  many  of  you  by  not  canvassing  for  your 
votes.  I  am  sorry  for  it,  because  I  respect  you 
too  much,  and  love  the  constitution  of  my  cotmtry 
too  well,  to  infringe  on  the  freedom  of  election, 
of  which,  in  these  corrupt  times,  this  city  still 
continues  to  give  a  most  glorious  example.  If 
you  recollect,  gentlemen,  I  did  not  canvass  you 
at  the  last  general  election.  I  have  not  canvass¬ 
ed  you  for  the  approaching  one,  and  I  tell  you 
honestly  I  never  will  canvass  you.  You  shall  elect 
me  without  a  canvass,  or  not  at  all.”  And  on 
those  honorable  terms  he  was  elected  four  times 
running. 

He  was  made  Alderman  of  Billingsgate  Ward 
in  1752.  In  1758  he  was  Sheriff  of  London,  and 
in  1762  Lord  Mayor.  His  civic  functions  were 
well  performed,  and  he  is  famous  for  the  especial 
splendor  with  which  he  performed  one  important 
part  of  them.  As  Sheriff,  he  gave  four  great  ban¬ 
quets,  surpassed  in  richness  only  by  those  which 
he  gave  when  he  was  Mayor.  Though  very  simple 
in  his  tastes  and  habits,  he  seems  to  have  consider¬ 
ed  sumptuous  public  entertainments  to  be  matters 
of  vital  importance.  On  the  occasion  of  George 
III.’s  coronation,  after  taking  part  in  the  show,  he 
went  with  the  other  city  magnates  to  dine  at  West¬ 
minster  Hall,  and  great  was  his  indignation  at  the 
sorry  fare  provided  for  them.  “  We  have  invited 
the  King,”  he  exclaimed,  “  to  a  banquet  which  will 


His  Great  Banquets. 


197 


cost  us  ;£io,ooo,  and  yet,  when  we  come  to  Court, 
we  are  given  nothing  to  eat.” 

The  banquet  to  which  Beckford  referred,  in  the 
sumptuous  preparation  of  which  he  seems  to  have 
taken  a  leading  part,  was  on  the  occasion  of  the 
young  King’s  going  into  the  city  to  see  the  Lord 
Mayor’s  show.  He  watched  it  from  the  house  of 
David  Barclay,  the  Quaker,  founder  of  Barclay’s 
Bank  and  Barclay’s  Brewery,  and  Beckford’s  chief 
rival  in  the  successful  carrying  on  of  the  American 
trade.  It  had  long  been  the  practice  for  each  new 
sovereign  to  witness  the  Lord  Mayor’s  show  that 
first  occurred  after  his  accession,  before  going  to 
dine  at  the  Guildhall ;  and  it  was  the  custom  for 
this  to  be  done  at  a  fine  old  house  in  Cheapside, 
opposite  to  Bow  Church,  and  almost  the  fittest  in 
the  city.  We  have  a  curious  account  of  this  epi¬ 
sode  in  a  letter  written  by  John  Freame,  Barclay’s 
brother-in-law  and  partner.  He  says  that,  “  In  the 
first  place,  brother  Barclay  spared  no  cost  in  re¬ 
pairing  and  decorating  his  house.  When  that  was 
perfected,  Lord  Bruce  came  several  times  to  give 
directions  about  the  apartments  and  furniture 
(which  was  very  grand),  and  also  in  what  manner 
the  family  were  to  receive  their  royal  guests.  But 
previous  to  this,  brother  Barclay  insisted  that  all 
his  children  that  came  there  should  be  dressed  like 
plain  Friends.  This  injunction  was  an  exercising 
time  indeed  to  several  of  them.  The  sons  were 
dressed  in  plain  cloth,  the  daughters  in  plain  silks, 
with  dressed  black  hoods,  and,  my  sister  says,  on 


198  George  III.  a??iong  Quakers. 

the  whole,  made  a  genteel  appearance,  and  acted 
their  part  in  the  masquerade  very  well.  So  that 
(as  to  the  outward)  the  testimony  of  the  Apology 
appeared  to  be  maintained.  And  now,  all  things 
being  in  order,  brother  and  sister  Barclay,  with 
David  and  Jack,  were  appointed  to  receive  the 
royal  family  below-stairs,  and  to  wait  on  them  to 
the  apartment  prepared  for  them  above.  Soon 
after  which,  the  King  asked  for  Mr.  Barclay  and 
his  family,  who  were  introduced  to  him  by  the 
lords  in  waiting,  and  kindly  received;  and  brftth- 
er,  with  all  his  sons,  permitted  to  have  the  honor 
to  kiss  his  hand  without  kneeling,  an  instance  of 
such  condescension  as  never  was  known  before. 
The  King  after  this  saluted  my  sister  and  the 
girls,  and  the  same  favor  was  conferred  on  them 
by  the  Queen  and  others  of  the  royal  family. 
The  Queen,  with  others  of  the  family,  and  sev¬ 
eral  of  the  nobility,  refreshed  themselves  with 
the  repast  provided  for  them  in  the  back  par¬ 
lor  and  kitchen,  which  was  elegantly  set  off  for 
the  occasion,  and  it  being,  I  suppose,  a  great  nov¬ 
elty  to  them,  were  highly  delighted  with  the  en¬ 
tertainment.  On  the  King’s  going  away,  he 
thanked  brother  Barclay  for  his  entertainment,  and 
politely  excused,  as  he  was  pleased  to  say,  the 
trouble  they  had  given.  This  great  condescen¬ 
sion,  I  am  told,  so  affected  the  old  gentleman,  that 
he  not  only  made  a  suitable  return  to  the  compli¬ 
ment,  but,  like  the  good  patriarchs  of  old,  prayed 
that  God  would  please  to  bless  him  and  all  his 


A  Quaker's  u  Opportunity  A  199 

family,  which  was  received  by  him  with  great  good¬ 
ness.” 

After  that  friendly  interview  with  David  Bar¬ 
clay,  which  added  much  to  the  good  merchant’s 
influence  and  prosperity,  by  bringing  him  into  im¬ 
mediate  connection  with  the  highest  persons  in 
the  realm,  the  King  and  Queen  went  to  partake 
of  the  great  feast  which  cost  ,£10,000. 

Next  year  William  Beckford  was  made  Lord 
Mayor,  and  famous  opportunity  was  afforded  for 
showing  his  love  of  splendid  entertainments.  Be¬ 
sides  the  ordinary  feasts,  he  entertained,  at  his  own 
expense,  the  members  of  the  Houses  of  Lords  and 
Commons  at  a  dinner  which  cost  another  sum  of 
£1 0,000.  Six  dukes,  two  marquises,  twenty-three 
earls,  four  viscounts,  and  fourteen  barons,  then 
joined  with  a  host  of  commoners  in  partaking  of 
six  hundred  costly  dishes. 

That  love  of  display  was  part  of  Beckford’s  char¬ 
acter,  but  only  its  weaker  part,  and  perhaps  it  was 
only  indulged  in  by  him  as  a  means  of  gaining  in¬ 
fluence  with  the  merchants,  statesmen,  and  court¬ 
iers  of  his  day.  And  that  influence  he  put  to  good 
use.  He  was  the  direct  successor  of  another  great 
and  good,  perhaps  a  better,  man,  Sir  John  Barnard. 

Barnard  was  born  in  1685,  three-and-twenty 
years  before  Beckford.  A  Quaker  by  birth,  though 
he  afterward  became  a  member  of  the  Church 
of  England,  he  exhibited  a  Quaker’s  simplicity  of 
manners,  and  a  Quaker’s  honest  perseverance  in 
money-making,  to  the  end  of  his  long  life.  In  his 


200 


Sir  John  Barnard. 


youth,  says  the  friend  who  wrote  his  biography,  “  he 
sought  out  companions  among  men  distinguished 
by  their  knowledge,  learning,  and  religion,”  of 
whom  there  were  not  too  many  in  the  dissolute  age 
of  Georgian  rule.  Men  who  did  not  care  to  imi¬ 
tate  him,  however,  respected  his  worth  and  wisdom. 
In  1721  he  was  sent  to  Parliament  as  member  for 
the  City  of  London,  and  he  was  re-elected  to  the 
post  six  times  in  succession.  “  From  his  first  tak¬ 
ing  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons,”  says  his 
friend,  “  he  entered  with  acumen  into  the  merits  of 
each  point  under  debate,  defended  with  intrepidity 
our  constitutional  rights,  withstood  every  attempt 
to  burden  his  country  with  needless  subsidies,  ar- 
gued*with  remarkable  strength  and  perspicuity,  and 
crowned  all  with  close  attention  to  the  business  of 
Parliament,  never  being  absent  by  choice,  from  the 
time  the  members  met  till  they  were  adjourned. 
It  is  hard  to  say  whether  out  of  the  House  he  was 
more  popular,  or  within  it  more  respectable,  dur¬ 
ing  the  space  of  nearly  forty  years.” 

Barnard  took  a  more  or  less  prominent  part  in 
nearly  every  measure  of  importance  that  was 
brought  before  Parliament  during  the  long  reign 
of  George  II.  He  sided  always  with  the  advo¬ 
cates  of  peace  and  retrenchment,  showing  himself 
a  zealous  reformer  on  all  matters  affecting  the  na¬ 
tional  honor  and  the  development  of  trade,  but 
being  somewhat  a  Conservative  whenever  the 
welfare  of  the  country  did  not  seem  to  him  to  call 
for  a  change.  But  in  all  commercial  matters  he 


His  Worth  a?id  Wisdom. 


201 


held  very  advanced  views.  At  a  time  when  mer¬ 
chants  and  politicians  believed  that  private  and 
public  interests  would  be  best  served  by  all  sorts 
of  restrictions  upon  the  importation  of  foreign 
goods,  and  arbitrary  schemes  for  forcing  English 
wares  at  high  prices  upon  foreigners,  he  appeared 
as  the  champion  of  free  trade.  “  We  ought  nev¬ 
er,”  he  said,  “  to  make  laws  for  encouraging  or  en¬ 
abling  our  subjects  to  sell  the  produce  or  manu¬ 
facture  of  their  country  at  a  high  price,  but  we 
ought  to  contrive  all  ways  and  means  for  enabling 
them  to  sell  cheaply.  It  is  certain  that  at  all  for¬ 
eign  markets  those  who  sell  cheapest  will  carry  off 
the  sale,  and  turn  all  others  out  of  trade.”  Sir 
John  Barnard,  however,  did  not  approve  of  all 
trades.  In  1734  he  introduced  a  bill  increasing 
the  tax  upon  tea,  then  something  of  a  novelty  in 
England.  “  I  wish  the  duty  were  higher  than  it 
is,”  he  oddly  said,  “  because  I  look  upon  it  as  an 
article  of  luxury.” 

In  1747  a  statue  of  Sir  John  Barnard  was  set 
up  in  the  Royal  Exchange,  there  to  mark  him  as 
Gresham’s  great  successor  in  benefaction  to  the 
city.  He  was  henceforth  known  as  “The  Father 
of  the  City.”  But  at  that  time,  or  soon  after,  he 
went  to  end  his  days  quietly  at  his  house  in  Clap- 
ham.  There,  we  are  told,  he  spent  an  hour  each 
day  in  prayer  and  study  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
every  Sunday  he  went  twice  to  church,  “  where  he 
behaved  with  exemplary  seriousness  through  every 
part  of  divine  service,  hearing  the  preacher,  though 


202 


Two  Views  of  Beckford. 


his  inferior  in  knowledge  of  divinity,  no  less  than 
in  strength  of  intellect,  with  evident  signatures  of 
meekness  in  his  aspect”  “All  his  long  train  of 
honors,”  it  is  added,  “  seemed  as  much  unknown 
to  himself  as  if  they  had  never  thrown  their  lustre 
round  his  name.  No  mention  was  heard  from  his 
own  mouth  of  the  transactions  in  which  he  bore  a 
principal  part  and  acquired  great  glory.  If  ques¬ 
tions  regarding  them  were  asked  for  information’s 
sake,  his  answers  were  always  brief,  and  the  sub¬ 
ject  never  by  himself  pursued.  He  died  in  1764, 
in  the  eightieth  year  of  his  age. 

William  Beckford  was  then  at  the  height  of  his 
renown,  praised  by  friends,  abused  by  enemies,  and 
made  a  trade  of  by  many  who  cared  only  to  ad¬ 
vance  their  own  selfish  interests.  “  I  was  aston¬ 
ished,”  said  an  old  writer,  in  1769,  of  a  person  of 
this  sort,  “  at  the  effrontery  as  well  as  impudence 
with  which  he  dared  to  avow  a  want  of  all  princi¬ 
ple  and  honor.  He  showed  me  two  contrasted 
characters  of  Alderman  Beckford,  the  idol  of  the 
mob,  which  he  was  to  insert  in  antagonist  news¬ 
papers  :  one  a  panegyric  and  the  other  a  libel,  for 
each  of  which  he  expected  to  receive  the  reward 
of  a  guinea.” 

The  prevalence  of  contradictory  and  unprin¬ 
cipled  writing  of  that  sort  makes  it  very  difficult  to 
understand  the  real  character  of  Beckford.  Some¬ 
times  he  is  painted  as  an  ideal  patriot;  sometimes 
as  a  vulgar  democrat.  That  he  was,  however,  “the 
idol  of  the  mob,”  liking  their  idolatry,  and  doing 


Beckford  ’s  Last  Boldness.  203 

something  to  deserve  it,  is  clear.  He  was  the 
friend  of  Wilkes  and  the  most  extreme  Radicals 
of  his  day,  and  the  Tory  inclinations  of  George 
III.  and  his  favorite  ministers  were  denounced  by 
him  in  no  measured  terms,  in  the  House  of  Com¬ 
mons  and  in  the  City. 

His  denunciations  were  loudest,  and  passed  far 
beyond  the  limits  of  courtly  decency,  in  the  spring 
of  1770.  On  two  occasions,  as  Lord  Mayor  for 
the  year,  he  took  the  lead  in  preparing  angry  pe¬ 
titions  from  the  citizens  of  London,  complaining 
of  the  king’s  conduct  and  of  its  support  by  Parlia¬ 
ment.  On  the  23d  of  May,  attended  by  the  Com¬ 
mon  Council  and  a  crowd  of  followers,  he  went  to 
St.  James’s  Palace  to  offer  a  third  and  still  bolder 
remonstrance  to  George  III.  After  listening  to  it, 
the  King  answered  that  the  conduct  of  the  citizens 
was  displeasing  to  him,  that  he  had  their  best  in¬ 
terests  at  heart,  and  that  he  expected  them  to  rely 
upon  his  honesty  and  his  reverence  for  the  English 
constitution.  Thereupon,  says  the  historian,  “  to 
the  dismay  of  the  courtiers,  and  contrary  to  all 
precedent  and  etiquette,  Beckford  had  not  only  the 
bad  taste  to  endeavor  to  draw  his  sovereign  into  a 
personal  controversy,  but  had  also  the  impudence 
to  address  to  him  the  language  of  reproof.”  The 
harangue  which  he  is  reported  to  have  uttered  on 
the  occasion  was  certainly  very  bold  and  threat¬ 
ening.  “Permit  me,  sire,  to  observe,”  he  said,  in 
concluding  it,  “  that  whoever  has  already  dared  or 
shall  hereafter  endeavor,  by  false  insinuations  and 


204 


Beckford's  Death. 


.suggestions,  to  alienate  your  Majesty’s  affections 
from  your  loyal  subjects  in  general,  and  from  the 
city  of  London  in  particular,  and  to  withdraw  your 
confidence  in  regard  for  your  people,  is  an  enemy 
to  your  Majesty’s  person  and  family,  a  violator  of 
the  public  peace,  and  a  betrayer  of  our  happy  con¬ 
stitution,  as  it  was  established  at  the  glorious  and 
necessary  Revolution.” 

That  violent  behavior  added  much  to  Beckford’s 
popularity  with  the  extreme  members  of  his  party, 
but  gave  great  and  not  unreasonable  offense  to 
George  III.  When,  on  the  30th  of  May,  he  ap¬ 
plied  for  another  audience  of  the  King,  he  was  re¬ 
fused  admittance. 

Beckford  was  now  sixty-two  years  old,  and  the 
political  turmoil  in  which  he  was  engaged  proved 
too  much  for  him.  Early  in  June,  being  ill,  he 
went  down  to  the  splendid  seat  which  he  had 
bought  for  himself  at  Fonthill,  in  Hampshire. 
Thence,  after  a  week  or  two,  being  suddenly  re¬ 
quired  in  London  for  some  new  political  action, 
he  travelled  up  to  London,  a  coach  ride  of  a  hun¬ 
dred  miles,  in  one  day.  A  violent  attack  of  rheu¬ 
matic  fever  was  the  result,  causing  his  death  at 
his  town  house,  in  Soho  Square,  on  the  21st  of 
June,  1770. 

The  conflicting  opinions  held  about  him  in  life 
continued  after  his  death.  By  many  he  was  de¬ 
scribed  as  a  man  altogether  vile  and  vulgar. 
Others  could  not  find  words,  in  prose  or  verse, 
strong  enough  for  his  praises.  One  vigorous  but 


Chatterton  on  Beckford \ 


205 


fulsome  elegy,  from  which  the  following  verses  are 
extracted,  was  penned  by  the  unfortunate  poet, 
Thomas  Chatterton: 

“  Weep  on,  ye  Britons,  give  your  general  tear  ! 

But  hence,  ye  venal — hence,  each  titled  slave  ! 

An  honest  pang  should  wait  on  Beckford’s  bier, 

And  patriot  anguish  mark  the  patriot’s  grave. 

“  Thou  breathing  sculpture,  celebrate  his  fame, 

And  give  his  laurel  everlasting  bloom  ; 

Record  his  worth  while  gratitude  has  name, 

And  teach  succeeding  ages  from  his  tomb  ! 

“  The  sword  of  justice  cautiously  he  sway’d ; 

His  hand  forever  held  the  balance  right ; 

Each  venial  fault  with  pity  he  survey’d ; 

But  murder  found  no  mercy  in  his  sight. 

“  He  knew  when  flatterers  besiege  a  throne, 

Truth  seldom  reaches  to  a  monarch’s  ear ; 

Knew  if,  oppress’d,  a  loyal  people  groan, 

’Tis  not  the  courtiers’  interest  he  should  hear. 

“  Hence,  honest  to  his  prince,  his  manly  tongue, 

The  public  wrong  and  loyalty  convey’d, 

While  titled  tremblers,  every  nerve  unstrung, 

Look’d  all  around,  confounded  and  dismay’d, — 

“  Looked  all  around,  astonish’d  to  behold 

(Train’d  up  to  flattery  from  their  early  youth) 

An  artless,  fearless  citizen  unfold 
To  royal  ears  a  mortifying  truth. 

“  Titles  to  him  no  pleasure  could  impart, 

No  bribes  his  rigid  virtue  could  control ; 

The  star  could  never  gain  upon  his  heart, 

Nor  turn  the  tide  of  honor  in  his  soul. 

“  He,  as  a  planet,  with  unceasing  ray, 

Is  seen  in  one  unvaried  course  to  move, 

Through  life  pursued  but  one  illustrious  way, 

And  all  his  orbit  was  his  country’s  love. 


206 


V 

William  Beckford. 

“  But  he  is  gone  !  and  now,  alas  !  no  more 

His  generous  hand  neglected  worth  redeems ; 

No  more  around  his  mansion  shall  the  poor 
Bask  in  his  warm,  his  charitable  beams. 

“No  more  his  grateful  countrymen  shall  hear 
His  manly  voice  in  martyr’d  freedom’s  cause ; 

No  more  the  courtly  sycophant  shall  fear 
His  poignant  lash  for  violated  laws. 

“Yet  say,  stern  virtue,  who’d  not  wish  to  die, 

Thus  greatly  struggling,  a  whole  land  to  save  ? 

Who  would  not  wish,  with  ardor  wish,  to  lie 
With  Beckford’s  honor  in  a  Beckford’s  grave  ?” 

Though  not  quite  a  hero  of  the  most  heroic 
sort,  William  Beckford  was  a  man  for  the  city  of 
London  to  be  proud  of.  His  statue,  with  his  fa¬ 
mous  speech  to  George  III.  written  under  it,  was 
put  up  in  the  Guildhall,  and  by  most  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  he  was  honored  as  a  great  and  worthy  pa¬ 
triot. 

He  was  certainly  a  shrewd  and  prosperous 
merchant.  His  estate  at  Fonthill  and  other  prop¬ 
erty,  yielding  ;£i  10,000  a  year,  besides  ,£1,000,000 
in  ready  money,  descended  to  his  only  son,  the 
Earl  of  Chatham’s  godchild,  William  Beckford,  who 
is  chiefly  famous  as  the  author  of  “  Vathek.” 


Robert  Thornton . 


207 


X 


HENRY  THORNTON, 


[1762-1815.] 


H ROUGH  most  of  the  first  half  of  the  eight¬ 


eenth  century,  while  William  Beckford  was 
making  a  name  for  himself  as  a  great  London  mer¬ 
chant  and  grandee,  a  humbler  man  was  honorably 
pursuing  his  calling.  His  name  was  Robert  Thorn¬ 
ton.  He  imported  goods  from  Russia,  and  sent 
thither  English  goods  in  exchange,  a  branch  of 
trade  for  which  Hull,  which  seems  to  have  been 
his  native  place,  was  famous,  and  which  he  carried 
on  in  connection  with  some  influential  traders  of 
Hull.  He  lived  in  the  out-of-the-way  village  of 
Clapham,  and  must  have  been  acquainted  with 
Sir  John  Barnard,  Beckford’s  rival  as  a  great  city 
merchant,  and  certainly  at  that  time  the  wealthiest 
and  worthiest  of  the  pious  merchants  who  even 
then  had  begun  to  make  Clapham  their  favorite 
abode. 

Robert  Thornton  had  a  son,  John,  born  in  1720, 
who  succeeded  him  in  the  Russian  business,  and 
made  it  very  much  more  extensive.  “  He  was  in 
business,”  says  Mr.  Colquhoun,  “  an  active  mer¬ 
chant,  keen  in  watching  opportunities  and  skillful 
in  using  them.  Eminent  for  other  qualities,  he 


208 


Joint  Thornton. 


never  lost  the  practiced  eye  of  the  merchant  and 
his  watchful  observation.  In  one  of  his  tours  in 
Ireland,  undertaken  late  in  life  to  recruit,  as  was 
his  habit,  his  strength,  he  showed  the  habits  which 
peculiarly  characterized  him.  Walking  out  in  the 
early  morning  at  Cork,  he  turned  down  to  the  har¬ 
bor,  where  a  number  of  vessels,  laden  with  tallow, 
had  just  come  in.  A  few  questions,  addressed  by 
him  to  the  persons  connected  with  them,  put  him 
in  possession  of  the  facts,  and  by  a  stroke  of  his 
pen  he  made  the  cargoes  his  own.  By  this  adven-  . 
ture  he  cleared  a  handsome  profit.  From  the  har¬ 
bor  he  strolled  into  a  nursery  garden,  where  he 
fell  in  with  its  humble  proprietor.  The  poor  man 
was  in  great  perplexity,  being  hampered  for  want 
of  capital.  Mr.  Thornton  talked  to  him,  ascertain¬ 
ed  his  circumstances,  inquired  into  his  character, 
and  being  satisfied,  by  another  stroke  of  his  pen 
helped  him  out  of  his  troubles,  and  set  him  fairly 
on  his  feet.” 

Of  that  sort  was  his  conduct  through  life.  Al¬ 
ways  ready  to  see  where  a  good  bargain  was  to  be 
made,  and  how  to  make  it,  he  acquired  great 
wealth,  and  was  always  ready  to  spend  it  in  wise 
and  charitable  ways.  His  generous  disposition 
has  rarely  been  equalled.  Meeting  one  day  on 
the  Exchange  a  young  merchant,  whom  he  knew 
to  be  honest  and  intelligent,  but  cramped  in  busi¬ 
ness  by  the  small  amount  of  money  at  his  com 
mand,  he  said  to  him,  “John,  I  have  been  think¬ 
ing  much  of  you  and  your  circumstances ;  I  think 


His  Generosities. 


209 


if  you  had  a  larger  capital,  you  would  now  do  a 
better  business.”  His  friend  said  this  was  cer- 
tainly  the  case.  “Well,”  said  John  Thornton, 
“^10,000  are  at  your  service.  If  you  prosper, 
you  will  repay  me  ;  if  you  don’t,  you  shall  never 
hear  of  the  debt.”  The  younger  merchant, 
amazed  at  such  an  offer,  asked  for  a  few  days  to 
think  over  it.  When  the  few  days  were  past, 
Thornton  sought  him  out  and  reminded  him  of 
their  conversation.  “  I  have  been  thinking  over 
your  kind  offer,”  was  the  reply,  “but  I  feel  I  must 
decline  it.  If  I  lost  your  money,  I  should  be  very 
unhappy ;  and,  through  the  blessing  of  God,  I  am 
now  doing  a  fair  business  ;  so  I  had  better  remain 
as  I  arti.” 

J ohn  Thornton  spent  most  of  his  wealth  in  the 
interests  of  the  religion  that  was  dear  to  him. 
Earnest  men  of  all  creeds  were  his  friends — Wes¬ 
ley,  and  Whitfield,  and  William  Bull,  the  Independ¬ 
ent,  as  well  as  John  Newton,  and  a  host  of  clergy¬ 
men  of  the  Established  Church.  His  favorite  « 
plan  was  to  buy  livings,  and  give  them,  with  addi¬ 
tional  endowments,  to  clergymen  of  his  own  gen¬ 
erous  and  earnest  way  of  thinking ;  and  in  the 
same  way,  to  make  large  allowances,  for  their  own 
use,  and  for  philanthropic  employment,  to  Method¬ 
ists  and  Dissenting  ministers.  “  I  am  glad  you 
are  beginning  a  Sunday-school,”  he  wrote  to  one 
Dissenter ;  “  when  you  want  assistance,  you  know 
where  to  come  for  it ;  when  you  want  money,  re¬ 
member  I  am  your  banker,  and  draw  freely.” 

O 


210  Wilberforce  and  the  Thorntons . 

A  sister  of  John  Thornton’s  married  an  uncle 
of  William  Wilberforce.  Wilberforce,  as  a  lad, 
spent  many  years  in  the  house  of  his  uncle  and 
aunt,  and  went  often  to  that  of  the  Thorntons. 
The  associations  there  brought  in  his  way,  however, 
were  distasteful  to  his  kinsfolk,  in  whose  opinions 
Christianity  could  not  exist  out  of  the  Church  of 
England.  “  If  Billy  turns  Methodist,”  said  his 
grandfather,  “  he  shall  not  have  a  sixpence  of 
mine.”  Therefore,  at  the  age  of  twelve,  young 
Wilberforce  was  forbidden  to  go  to  either  Wimble¬ 
don  or  Clapham.  But  when  he  was  his  own  mas¬ 
ter,  he  went  back  to  both  places  with  a  hearty 
love  for  the  religious  habits  which  he  there  found 
enforced.  “  It  was  by  living  with  great  simplicity 
of  intention  and  conduct  in  the  practice  of  a  Chris¬ 
tian  life,”  he  said  afterward  of  his  old  friend,  “  more 
than  by  any  superiority  of  understanding  or  of 
knowledge,  that  John  Thornton  rendered  his  name 
illustrious.  He  anticipated  the  disposition  and 
M  pursuits  of  the  succeeding  generation.  He  de¬ 
voted  large  sums  annually  to  charitable  purposes, 
especially  to  the  promotion  of  the  cause  of  religion, 
both  in  his  own  and  other  countries.” 

John  Thornton  died  in  1790.  He  left  not  only 
the  old  Russian  business  greatly  enlarged,  but  also 
a  share  in  the  extensive  banking  establishment  of 
Down,  Thornton,  &  Free,  in  Bartholomew  Lane. 
Both  descended  to  his  three  sons — Samuel,  Rob¬ 
ert,  and  Henry — although  the  mercantile  concern 
was  managed  principally  by  the  two  elder  sons, 


He?iry  Thornton.  211 

the  bank  being  directed  chiefly  by  the  youngest 
and  ablest 

Henry  Thornton,  born  in  1762,  seems  indeed 
to  have  been  tha  leading  spirit  in  the  bank  from 
the  first  His  large  powers  and  wise  use  of  them 
helped  greatly  to  advance  the  whole  business 
while  it  was  in  his  father’s  hands,  and  these  appear 
to  have  been  the  main  cause  of  its  extension  in 
the  most  lucrative  of  all  ways  of  honest  money¬ 
making.  “  He  inherited,”  says  Mr.  Colquhoun, 
“  the  business  talents  of  his  father,  and  his  untiring 
perseverance ;  but  the  ability,  which  in  his  father 
was  limited  to  mercantile  enterprise,  rose  in  him 
to  a  higher  elevation.  His  mind  was  essentially 
philosophic.  To  investigate  every  moral  occur¬ 
rence  and  physical  problem,  to  trace  these  through 
their  relations  and  connections,  to  analyze  their 
elements,  to  extract  that  which  was  essential  from 
the  incidental,  this  furnished  a  constant  exercise 
to  his  intellectual  powers.  To  examine  carefully, 
to  deliberate  long,  to  balance  each  quality  and 
circumstance  in  the  scales  of  an  equal  judgment, 
to  accept  no  standard  but  that  of  truth,  and  to 
bring  every  thing  to  be  tried  by  that  standard — 
wherever  law  was  applicable,  to  apply  it,  and  where 
law  was  silent,  to  test  the  subject  by  rules  of  equity 
— this  was  his  favorite  occupation,  and  the  delight 
of  his  leisure  hours.” 

Like  many  other  busy  men,  he  found  leisure  for 
philosophical  thought  and  philanthropic  labor,  with¬ 
out  any  hinderance  to  the  due  performance  of  his 


212  Early  Bankers :  the  Hoares. 

complicated  pursuits  in  the  counting-house.  He 
was  much  more  than  a  banker,  but,  as  a  banker, 
he  had  no  rivals  in  his  day. 

Yet  that  was  almost  the  most  eventful  period 
in  the  progress  of  banking.  Henry  Thornton  had 
for  competitors  many  men  who  have  made  especial 
mark  in  the  history  of  their  profession.  The  pro- 
fessioawas  then  passing  out  of  the  quiet  ways  to 
which  it  had  long  been  limited,  and  taking  its  place 
as  the  most  important  branch  of  modern  commerce. 
The  first  bankers  were  men  like  the  mediaeval 
Jews  of  Old  Jewry,  and  the  mediaeval  Lombards 
of  Lombard  Street,  Whittington  and  Gresham, 
Herrick  and  Heriot,  merchants  and  miscellaneous 
traders,  who  increased  their  wealth  and  influence 
as  money-makers  and  money-changers,  but  had 
none  of  the  elaborate  machinery  of  modern  bank¬ 
ing.  It  was  not  till  the  seventeenth  century  that 
it  began  to  be  a  separate  and  highly-developed  in¬ 
stitution.  Sir  Francis  Child,  originally  a  gold¬ 
smith,  the  founder  of  Child’s  Bank,  who  lived  in 
the  days  of  William  III.,  was  the  first  proper 
banker.  Other  men  soon  followed  in  his  steps,  and 
became  rich  by  their  new  calling. 

Among  the  chief  of  these  was  the  family  of  the 
Hoares.  Henry  Hoare,  the  son  of  a  humble  Buck¬ 
inghamshire  farmer,  was  a  merchant  in  London 
about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  His 
son  Richard,  born  in  1648,  was  famous  in  his  day 
for  his  good  business  qualities  and  his  public  serv¬ 
ices,  for  his  wealth,  and  the  good  use  to  which 


Sir  Henry  Hoare. 


213 


he  put  it.  “  He  not  only  governed  his  private  life 
by  the  strictest  rules  of  virtue,”  it  was  said  of  him, 
“but  also  in  many  public  stations  did  ever  dis- 
charge  his  duty  with  the  utmost  integrity  and 
fidelity.”  He  was  a  great  benefactor  of  Christ’s 
Hospital.  He  was  Member  of  Parliament  from 
1710  to  1713;  and,  in  the  latter  year,  having  been 
knighted,  he  served  as  Lord  Mayor.  He  was  re¬ 
lated,  both  by  family  ties  and  in  business,  to  James 
Hoare,  an  irregular  banker,  who  lived  at  the  sign 
of  the  Golden  Bottle,  in  Cheapside.  James  Hoare 
died  in  1694  ;  but  a  few  years  before  that  the  busi¬ 
ness  was  removed  to  Sir  Richard  Hoare’s  shop 
in  Fleet  Street,  also  indicated  by  a  golden  bottle  ; 
and  on  Sir  Richard’s  death,  in  1718,  it  descend¬ 
ed  to  his  three  sons,  Richard,  John,  and  Henry. 
The  youngest  son  seems  to  have  been  the  ablest 
and  the  worthiest.  “  His  behavior,”  said  one  of 
his  friends,  “  was  such,  under  the  various  circum¬ 
stances,  capacities,  and  relations  which  he  passed 
through,  that  a  general  esteem,  love,  and  honor, 
were  all  along  most  justly  paid  to  his  character.” 
He  left  £ 2000  to  be  given  to  various  charity- 
schools  and  work-houses,  ,£2000  to  be  spent  in 
distributing  Bibles,  prayer-books,  and  religious 
works,  and  other  large  sums  to  be  applied  in  various 
benevolent  ways.  Dying  in  1725,  he  left  a  pros¬ 
perous  banking-house,  to  be  chiefly  managed  by  his 
eldest  son,  Henry,  who  spent  a  long  life  of  eighty 
years  in  enlarging  his  influence,  increasing  his 
wealth,  and  putting  it  to  good  uses.  His  life  was 


214 


Thomas  Coutts. 


contemporary  with  that  of  John  Thornton,  and,  as 
he  too  lived  on  Clapham  Common,  he  must  have 
been  well  acquainted  with  the  pious  merchant  and 
his  famous  son. 

Another  great  banker  and  good  man,  though 
he  showed  his  goodness  in  different  ways,  was 
Thomas  Coutts.  His  grandfather,  John  Coutts, 
was  a  prosperous  corn-merchant  in  Edinburgh, 
who  added  banking  to  his  trade  in  corn.  The 
Edinburgh  business  was  carried  on  by  his  son  and 
grandsons  ;  but  the  most  ‘enterprising  of  these 
grandsons,  Thomas,  came  to  London  in  1754, 
when  he  was  about  twenty-three  years  old.  In 
1760  he  established  himself  as  a  banker  in  the 
Strand,  succeeding  to  the  business  of  a  George 
Campbell,  who  had  originally  been  a  goldsmith. 
In  1768  he  rebuilt  his  premises,  which  form  the 
present  banking-house  of  Coutts  &  Company. 
Coutts  was  charitable  in  his  way,  often  very  gen¬ 
erous  in  his  dealings  with  others;  but  the  one 
great  occupation  of  his  life  was  money-making. 
He  is  described  by  one  who  often  saw  him  sham¬ 
bling  along  the  Strand,  as  “  a  pallid,  sickly,  thin, 
old  gentleman,  who  wore  a  shabby  coat  and  a 
brown  scratch  wig.”  One  day  a  good-natured 
person  fresh  from  the  country,  stopped  him  in  the 
street,  and,  pitying  his  forlorn  appearance,  offered 
him  a  guinea.  Coutts  thanked  him,  but  declined 
the  gift,  saying  that  he  was  not  in  “  immediate 
want.”  When  he  died  in  1822,  at  the  age  of  nine¬ 
ty-one,  he  left  an  immense^property,  and  a  very  lu- 


THOMAS  COUTTS. 


Thornton  i?i  Parliament. 


217 

crative  business,  to  his  grand-daughter,  Miss  Ange¬ 
la  Burdett  Coutts,  whose  wealth,  it  was  reckoned  a 
few  years  ago,  if  told  in  sovereigns,  would  weigh 
thirteen  tons,  and  fill  a  hundred  and  seven  flour- 
sacks. 

Henry  Thornton  never  grew  so  rich  as  Thomas 
Coutts  or  the  Hoares.  But  he  was  an  abler  man 
than  any  of  them.  He  put  his  talents  to  good  use. 
Working  hard  in  his  counting-house,  he  was  also 
a  zealous  worker  outside  of  it.  He  entered  the 
House  of  Commons  as  member  for  Southwark, 
and  he  held  his  seat  for  one-and-thirty  years,  dur¬ 
ing  six  successive  Parliaments.  Those  were  days 
in  which  bribery  was  much  more  the  fashion  than 
now  it  is,  when  very  few  candidates  were  elected 
for  their  merits  alone,  the  corruption  of  poor  elect¬ 
ors  or  the  influence  of  rich  landlords  being  the  ac¬ 
cepted  means  for  sending  even  honest  men  to  Par¬ 
liament.  He.nry  Thornton  was  too  honest  to  adopt 
either  of  these  means. 

He  held  his  ground  even  when  the  opposition 

at  some  of  the  elections  was  most  violent.  “In 

the  election  of  1802,  ”  says  Mr.  Colquhoun,  “  his 

success  was  doubtful.  His  colleague  had  secured 

his  seat  by  assiduous  attention  to  the  voters. 

Henry  Thornton  had  given  his  time  to  important 

duties  and  public  business.  At  the  nomination 

the  show  of  hands  was  against  him.  But  when 

the  voting  began,  and  he  was  found  to  stand  low- 

> 

est  on  the  poll,  there  was  a  prompt  rally  in  his 
favor.  He  had,  indeed,  no  crowds  of  canvassers, 


218  Election  without  Bribery. 

nor  could  he  win  the  crowd  to  his  side  by  witty 
eloquence.  But  his  character  spoke  for  him ; 
and  his  good  deeds,  experienced  by  many,  spread 
a  savor  which  influenced  a  wide  circle.  To  many 
families  he  had  been  a  liberal  benefactor ;  every 
one  in  distress  knew  where  he  could  find  a  friend.” 
And  he  was  returned  with  an  overwhelming  ma¬ 
jority.  The  mob,  that  h£d  been  disposed  to  oust 
him,  became  furious  in  his  favor.  He  was  then  as 
calm  in  his  success  as  he  had  been  at  the  pros¬ 
pect  of  defeat.  “  I  had  rather,”  he  said  to  his 
children,  “  have  a  shake  of  the  hand  from  good  old 
John  Newton,  than  the  cheers  of  all  that  foolish 
mob,  who  praise  me,  they  don’t  know  why.” 

In  1807,  again,  there  was  a  hard  contest,  and 
Thornton  looked  upon  his  defeat  as  certain. 
Against  all  the  entreaties  of  his  friends,  he  refused 
to  do  as  others  did — to  treat  and  flatter,  if  not 
openly  to  bribe ;  and  again  he  was  placed  at  the 
head  of  the  poll  by  men  whose  respect  he  had 
nobly  earned  by  his  disinterested  conduct.  Even 
those  who  would  readily  have  taken  pay  for  their 
votes  gave  them  for  nothing  to  a  man  so  straight¬ 
forward  and  disinterested.  One  of  the  doggerel 
verses  circulated  at  the  contest  expressed  the 
thoughts  of  all  about  their  honest  representative  : 

“  Nor  place  nor  pension  e’er  got  he 
For  self  or  for  connection  ; 

We  shall  not  tax  the  Treasury 
By  Thornton’s  re-election.” 

Henry  Thornton  entered  Parliament,  and  re- 


Thornton's  Parliamentary  Work.  219 

tained  his  seat  there,  in  order  to  promote  two  sorts 
of  work  which  were  very  dear  to  him,  and  to  which 
he  devoted  the  chief  energies  of  his  life.  One  of 
these  was  the  furtherance  of  the  philanthropic  ef¬ 
forts  which  he  shared  with  Wilberforce  and  the 
other  members  of  that  famous  group  of  religious 
•men  known  as  the  Clapham  party.  The  other 
was  the  propounding  of  enlightened  views  on 
banking  and  commerce  which  have  done  much  to 
make  England  as  rich  and  great  as  now  it  is. 

The  Bank  of  England  was  in  his  day,  and  large¬ 
ly  through  his  help,  entirely  reorganized.  It  had 
been  founded,  as  we  have  seen,  by  William  Pater¬ 
son  about  a  hundred  years  before.  It  had  grown 
steadily,  and  was  already  not  only  a  great  private 
establishment,  of  immense  service  to  merchants 
and  their  callings,  and  very  profitable  to  its  share¬ 
holders,  but  also  the  powerful  agent  of  the  State 
in  its  financial  dealings.  It  was  allowed  to  be  a 
bank  for  private  persons,  on  condition  of  its  being 
alsc;  a  bank  for  the  nation,  competent  to  hold  the 
taxes  levied  throughout  the  country,  and  to  dis¬ 
pense  them  in  the  ways  appointed  by  the  minis¬ 
ters  of  the  State  for  the  country’s  good.  But 
when  Thornton  began  life,  the  bank  was  not  only 
being  used  as  a  depository  for  the  national  in¬ 
come.  The  costly  war  in  which  England  was  en¬ 
gaged  with  France  involved  far  more  expense 
than  the  taxes  could  meet.  Much  of  this  was 
provided  for  by  a  great  increase  of  the  national 
debt,  in  which  the  bank  was  an  important  agent ; 


220 


The  Bank  of  England. 


much  was  supplied  by  the  issuing  of  additional 
bank-notes,  under  Government  authority.  For  as 
long  a  time  as  possible,  the  Bank,  though  author¬ 
ized,  and  even  compelled,  to  issue  notes,  for  which 
it  had  no  equivalent  of  gold  in  its  coffers,  was 
held  to  the  terms  of  its  charter,  by  which  it  was 
obliged,  as  now,  to  give  gold  in  exchange  for  notes 
to  any  one  who  asked  for  it.  This,  of  course,  it 
would  have  been  unable  to  do,  had  any  great  de¬ 
mand  been  made^  for  gold  in  lieu  of  notes  ;  and 
the  danger  increased  with  the  increased  excess  of 
paper  money  over  coin  in  circulation.  At  length 
things  came  to  such  a  pass  that,  in  October,  1795, 
the  directors  of  the  Bank  informed  William  Pitt, 
then  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  that  they  were 
on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy,  and  could  not  hold 
out  much  longer.  Other  and  more  and  more 
urgent  messages  followed  during  nearly  a  year 
and  a  half.  The  result  was,  that  in  February, 
1797,  the  Bank  was  authorized  by  the  Privy  Coun¬ 
cil  to  refuse  cash  payment  for  its  notes,  or  the 
issue  of  any  greater  amount  of  coin  than  a  pound 
or  a  pound’s  worth  of  silver  at  a  time.  In  May  a 
law,  known  as  the  Bank  Restriction  Act,  was 
passed,  enforcing  that  resolution,  and  sanctioning 
an  almost  unlimited  issue  of  notes.  Sheridan  de¬ 
clared  it  a  “farce  to  call  that  a  bank  whose  prom¬ 
ise  to  pay  on  demand  was  paid  by  another  prom¬ 
ise  pay  at  some  undefined  period;”  and  Sir 
William  Pulteney  introduced  a  bill  “  for  the  erec¬ 
tion  of  a  new  bank,  in  case  the  Bank  of  England 


Thornton  on  Banking.  221 

did  not  pay  in  specie  on  or  before  the  24th  of 
June,  1798.”  But  this  opposition  was  ineffectual, 
and  the  Bank  Restriction  Act  remained  in  force 
for  two-and-twenty  years.  It  did  some  good,  in 
setting  bankers  and  financiers  to  devise  some  bet¬ 
ter  system  of  paper  currency ;  but  bank-notes  were 
so  lowered  in  value,  that  at  one  time  poor  people 
who  had  received  five-pound  notes  as  if  they  were 
worth £5,  found  they  could  not  exchange  them  for 
more  than  £3  ioj\  or  £4  apiece. 

Among  all  the  financial  reformers  induced  by 
this  state  of  things,  none  was  more  earnest  or  out¬ 
spoken  than  Henry  Thornton,  who  in  1803  pub¬ 
lished  “An  Inquiry  into  the  Effects  of  Paper 
Credit.”  In  it  he  showed  that  it  was  a  great 
wrong  to  commerce  and  society  to  issue  more 
paper-money  than,  in  the  open  market,  could  be 
exchanged  for  its  full  value  in  actual  coin ;  and 
that  to  force  upon  the  people  notes  which  were 
not  really  worth  as  much  as  they  professed  to  be, 
was  a  short-sighted  and  ruinous  policy.  He  per¬ 
severed  in  offering  the  same  sound  arguments,  and 
was  a  leading  member  of  the  famous  Bullion  Com¬ 
mittee,  appointed  in  1810,  which  fully  discussed 
the  whole  question,  and  ultimately  obtained  the 
adoption  of  those  wiser  principles  of  banking 
and  monetary  exchange  which  were  partly  and 
beneficially  adopted  in  1819,  when  the  Bank  of 
England  was  reconstructed  by  a  law  known  as 
Sir  Robert  Peeks  Act. 

Before  that  time,  however,  Henry  Thornton  died, 


222  Thornton  and  Wilherforce. 

having  done  much  other  very  useful  work  for  his 
country.  If  merchants  and  statesmen  honored 
him  most  as  a  great  financier,  he  was  no  less  wor¬ 
thy  of  honor  as  a  great  philanthropist.  He  was 
one  of  the  leaders,  in  some  respects  the  chief  lead¬ 
er,  of  the  religious  community  known  as  the  Clap- 
ham  party.  William  Wilherforce,  its  acknowledged 
head,  had  learned  to  be  a  good  man  in  the  house 
of  old  John  Thornton,  with  Henry  Thornton  for 
his  fellow-pupil.  The  two  men  became  fast  friends, 
and  were  fellow-helpers  for  life.  “  When  I  entered 
life,”  said  Thornton,  “  I  saw  a  great  deal  of  dishon¬ 
orable  conduct  among  people  who  made  great  pro¬ 
fessions  of  religion.  In  my  father’s  house  I  met 
with  a  person  of  this  sort.  This  so  disgusted  me, 
that  had  it  not  been  for  the  admirable  pattern  of 
consistency  and  disinterestedness  which  I  saw  in 
Mr.  Wilherforce,  I  should  have  been  in  danger  of 
a  sort  of  infidelity.”  “  I  owed  much  to  Wilherforce, 
in  every  sense,”  he  said  at  another  time ;  “  for  his 
enlightened  mind,  his  affectionate  and  condescend¬ 
ing  manners,  and  his  very  superior  piety  were  ex¬ 
actly  calculated  to  supply  what  was  wanting  to 
my  improvement  and  my  establishment  in  a  right 
course.  It  is  chiefly  through  him  that  I  have 
been  introduced  to  a  variety  of  other  most  valua¬ 
ble  associates.”  Wilherforce  spoke  of  Thornton 
in  terms  of  no  less  loving  praise. 

The  two  friends  and  their  valuable  associates 
did  noble  work  among  them.  “In  1789,”  writes 
Mr.  Colquhoun,  “  when  both  the  friends,  then  in 


Thornton  and  Hannah  More .  223 

delicate  health,  resorted  to  the  Bath  waters,  a  vis¬ 
it  made  by  Wilberforce  to  Cowslip  Green,  where 
Hannah  More,  as  he  said,  1  had  shut  herself  up  in 
the  country,  to  devote  her  talents  to  the  instruction 
of  a  set  of  wretched  people  sunk  in  heathen  dark¬ 
ness/  led  to  an  enterprise  of  benevolence  which 
long  engaged  both  the  friends.  Wilberforce’s 
compassionate  heart  was  touched  by  the  savage 
condition  of  the  neglected  people.  He  engaged, 
if  Hannah  More  would  undertake  the  trouble  of 
reclaiming  them,  that  he  would  bear  the  cost ;  any 
calls  for  money  he  would  readily  meet ;  ‘  for/  he 
writes,  ‘  I  have  a  rich  banker  in  London,  Mr.  H. 
Thornton,  whom  I  can  not  oblige  so  much  as  by 
drawing  on  him  for  purposes  like  these.’  In  1791, 
when  the  two  friends  were  again  at  Bath,  Henry 
Thornton  accompanied  Wilberforce  to  Cowslip 
Green,  and  thus  began  that  intimate  friendship  be¬ 
tween  Hannah  More  and  Henry  Thornton  which 
lasted  through  their  lives.  Hannah  More  soon 
learned  what  sort  of  a  man  Henry  Thornton  was. 
She  found  his  purse  open  to  her  in  all  her  difficul¬ 
ties  ;  and,  better  than  his  purse,  his  counsels.  Tri¬ 
als  had  fallen  on  her  and  her  sister  in  their  benevo¬ 
lent  labors ;  threats  of  prosecution,  calumnious 
charges  raised  by  obstinate  prejudice,  and  enven¬ 
omed  by  jealousy,  the  rancorous  bitterness  of  the 
rich  proving  more  odious  than  the  boorish  apathy 
of  the  poor.  So,  when  these  things  came  upon  her, 
she  poured  forth  her  story  to  her  thoughtful  friend  ; 
and  no  matter  how  busy  the  story  found  him — busy 


224  Thornton's  Philanthropies. 

at  his  bank,  on  committees,  helping  Wilberforce  in 
the  cause  of  abolition,  or  assisting  him  to  make  up 
his  mind  on  the  question  of  peace  with  France — he 
was  never  too  busy  to  send  advice  to  her.  No  mat¬ 
ter  what  the  subject,  he  is  ready.  She  is  publishing 
a  series  of  tracts,  half  political,  half  religious  ;  he 
reviews,  retouches,  and  prints  them.  He  writes 
some  himself.  1  While  we  are  taking  down  a  dull 
evidence,’  he  writes  from  the  Finance  Committee, 
‘  I  seize  a  few  minutes  to  write  to  you  on  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  tracts.  I  have  to  tell  you  that  I  thought 
it  right  to  prepare  a  tract,  to  be  included  in  the 
printed  volume.’  Again  :  ‘  I  have  some  thoughts 
of  writing  the  second  part  of  the  communion  tract, 
another  of  prayers  for  families,  and  one  for  Christ- 
mas-day.’  ” 

Those  sentences  will  help  us  to  understand  the 
nature  of  Thornton’s  religious  and  philanthropic  la¬ 
bors  through  five-and-twenty  years  and  more.  To 
follow  it  all,  we  must  study  the  biographies  of  Wil¬ 
berforce,  of  Clarkson,  of  Hannah  More,  and  a  score 
of  other  worthies  ;  yet  even  then  we  can  follow  it 
but  dimly.  Henry  Thornton  was  a  modest  worker. 
He  was  the  mainspring  of  a  hundred  movements  ; 
but  he  was  generally  in  the  background,  willing 
that  others  should  have  the  praise  ;  in  the  simplici¬ 
ty  of  his  heart  believing  that  all  the  praise  was  re¬ 
ally  due  to  them,  and  satisfied  for  himself  in  think¬ 
ing  that  he  was  able  to  have  such  excellent  agents 
and  supporters  in  his  employment,  and  use  of  the 
money  and  the  talents  given  to  hm. 


The  Sierra  Leone  Company.  225 

In  one  movement,  however,  which  we  may  look 
upon  as  an  illustration  of  his  whole  character  and 
conduct,  he  was  outwardly,  as  well  as  really,  the 
leader.  In  1791  he  organized  a  Sierra  Leone 
Company,  and  obtained  a  charter  for  it.  He  was 
its  chairman,  and  it  started  with  a  capital  of 
,£150,000.  But  money-making  was  not  here  his 
object.  The  company  was  intended  to  organize  a 
settlement  of  escaped  and  liberated  slaves  from 
Jamaica,  Nova  Scotia,  and  elsewhere,  who  would 
thus,  it  was  hoped,  not  only  have  a  comfortable 
home  for  themselves,  but  also  be  able  to  spread 
the  blessings  of  civilization  among  the  native 
blacks  of  Western  Africa.  “  The  colony  works 
me  from  morning  till  night,”  he  wrote  in  Novem¬ 
ber,  1791;  “  the  importance  of  the  thing  strikes 
me,  and  fills  my  mind  so  much,  that  at  present 
business,  politics,  friendship,  seem  all  suspended 
for  the  sake  of  it.”  He  saw  that  the  first  ship  was 
properly  freighted,  and  properly  sent  out.  He  pre¬ 
pared  a  complete  code  of  laws  for  the  colony,  and 
chose  for  its  first  governor  Zachary  Macaulay,  to 
whose  son,  the  great  historian,  was  given  the  name 
of  another  influential  worker  in  the  Sierra  Leone 
scheme,  and  in  all  kindred  philanthropies — Thom¬ 
as  Babington.  Thornton,  Babington,  Wilberforce, 
and  others  toiled  at  home,  through  weary  years,  on 
behalf  of  the  colony,  and  Macaulay  worked  no  less 
zealously  for  it  on  the  spot.  Its  purposes  failed, 
partly  through  evils  of  climate,  partly  through  the 
incompetence  of  the  black  colonists  ;  and  in  I808 

P 


226  Thornton's  Various  Occupations. 

it  had  to  be  transferred  to  the  Crown,  and  subject¬ 
ed  to  different  and  rougher  treatmertf.  But  the 
honor  due  to  Thornton  and  his  associates  is  as 
great  as  if  their  philanthropic  undertaking  had 
been  crowned  with  the  utmost  possible  success. 

This,  too,  was  the  beginning  of  the  noble  enter¬ 
prise  in  which  Wilberforce  was  the  chief  advocate, 
by  which  the  slave-trade  was  abolished,  and  a 
death-blow,  acting  slowly  but  surely,  was  given  to 
slavery  itself.  Henry  Thornton  lived  long  enough 
to  see  and  help  on  only  the  commencement  of  this 
proud  crusade  against  the  most  grievous  obstacle 
to  civilization  and  progress  in  modern  times.  But 
his  share  in  it  was  hardly  less  on  that  account. 

A  marvellous  career  was  that  of  this  good  bank¬ 
er  and  merchant,  who  was  so  much  more  than  a 
mere  banker  and  merchant.  The  toils  of  half  a 
dozen  lives  seemed  merged  in  his  single  life.  “In 
his  Parliamentary  work,”  says  Mr.  Colquhoun,  “  his 
activity  became  every  year  greater  as  he  was  bet¬ 
ter  known,  till,  in  the  later  years  of  his  life,  there 
were  few  committees  on  finance,  or  taxes,  or  pub¬ 
lic  economy,  on  which  we  do  not  find  his  name. 
When  we  add  to  these  Parliamentary  labors  the 
claims  of  his  constituency,  their  local  requirements, 
letters,  memorials,  private  exigencies,  and  public 
deputations  —  when  we  reckon  up  the  weeks  of 
work  which  his  infant  colony  of  Sierra  Leone  cost 
him — we  can  see  how  he  toiled.  To  these  labors 
are  to  be  added  his  occupation  as  a  banker,  for  of 
the  bank  he  was  an  active  partner,  and  his  life  was 


No  Waste  of  Time . 


227 


cast  in  a  period  of  our  commercial  history  the 
most  critical  which  British  trade  has  ever  under¬ 
gone.  This  business  occupied  his  time,  and  in¬ 
terrupted  his  few  intervals  of  leisure.  It  brought 
him  almost  daily  to  the  city,  #  broke  his  holidays, 
and  forced  him  to  London  from  Bath,  Brighton,  or 
the  Isle  of  Wight.  It  left  him  few  and  uncertain 
seasons  either  for  research  or  for  reflection.  No 
doubt,  as  his  Parliamentary  work  grew,  this  en¬ 
croached  somewhat  on  his  banking  efforts  ;  and 
the  business  of  a  banker,  which  demands  constant 
supervision,  suffered  from  this  division  of  his  time. 
But  this  was  not  leisure,  but  only  a  change  of 
work  ;  the  substitution  of  one  class  of  employment 
for  another  more  absorbing.  ”  He  was  an  able 
and  prolific  author,  too.  “  He  wrote  as  much  as 
most  men  do  who  have  health  and  abundant  leis¬ 
ure.  He  seized  every  fragment  of  time ;  wrote 
after  his  days  of  canvassing  in  Southwark,  or  after 
his  work  at  the  bank,  or  while  engaged  in  the  con¬ 
struction  of  his  colony.  He  jotted  down  his 
thoughts  in  his  carriage  as  he  travelled,  even  on 
horseback  as  he  rode.”  Besides  his  work  on  “Pa¬ 
per  Credit,”  he  wrote  a  volume  of  “  Commentaries 
on  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,”  a  volume  of 
“  Family  Prayers,”  and  eighty-two  essays,  enough 
to  fill  a  dozen  volumes  in  the  “  Christian  Ob¬ 
server,”  which  he  was  instrumental  in  founding. 
“  And  all  this  work,”  to  quote  again  from  Mr.  Col- 
quhoun,  “  was  done  by  a  busy  politician  and  bank¬ 
er,  through  the  orderly  application  of  time  and 


228 


Thornton  *s  A uthorsh ip. 


thought,  never  hurried,  but  never  idle  ;  never  har¬ 
assed,  but  never  resting ;  moments  caught  up  as 
well  as  hours ;  the  workman  ever  working  cheerily 
under  a  Father’s  gracious  eye.  His  rest  was  to 
turn  from  one  labor  to  a  different  one — to  go  from 
the  bank  to  a  council  of  benevolence — from  a  po¬ 
litical  discussion  to  a  struggling  colony  or  a  school 
in  difficulties.  He  lays  down  the  pen  of  the  finan¬ 
cier  to  take  up  the  pen  of  the  philanthropist — to 
write  long  letters  to  a  harassed  governor — to  set¬ 
tle  differences  among  contending  missionaries — to 
compose  tracts  for  Hannah  More.” 

“  If  you  should  sink  in  the  midst  of  your  work,” 
he  said  in  one  of  his  letters  to  Hannah  More,  “  it 
will  be  better  than  sinking,  like  Bonaparte,  in  the 
midst  of  the  Egyptian  sands,  or  in  that  Holy  Land 
which  he  may  have  to  traverse.  My  wife  and  I 
have  lately  observed,  and  agreed  much  in  the  ob¬ 
servation,  how  much  happier  and  better  entitled  to 
comfort  are  they  who,  toward  the  close  of  life,  have 
to  look  back  on  scenes  of  activity,  than  they  who 
have  only  been  talking  and  feeling  religiously  all 
their  days.” 

In  that  spirit  he  lived  and  worked  to  the  last. 
“The  close  of  life,”  if  it  means  old  age,  never 
came  to  him.  He  worked  too  hard  for  that.  He 
began  to  die  while  he  was  yet  a  young  man,  and 
death  came  upon  him  when,  had  it  been  possible 
for  him  to  be  idle,  he  might  have  been  in  the 
prime  of  life.  He  was  fifty-two  when,  in  1814, 
the  anti-slavery  crusade  was  beginning.  “We 


Henry  Thornton' s  Death.  229 

have  some  dark  plots  in  our  head,”  he  said,  “  for 
influencing  the  Allied  Powers  in  favor  of  the  aboli¬ 
tion  of  the  slave-trade  through  this  earth  of  ours.” 
The  plots  were  to  continue,  but  he  was  not  to 
share  in  their  fulfillment.  In  the  autumn  of  the 
same  year  his  health,  which  had  long  been  break¬ 
ing,  began  to  break  rapidly.  By  the  end  of  Octo¬ 
ber  he  was  very  ill.  Through  the  next  two 
months  his  friends  gathered  round  him,  to  take 
their  farewell  of  a  man  whom  the  best  of  them, 
even  Wilberforce,  had  to  reverence  for  his  greater 
worth.  He  himself,  whenever  he  was  strong 
enough,  dictated  the  last  of  his  “Family  Prayers.” 
“  When  the  shadows  of  the  evening  fall  around 
us,”  he  murmured  in  the  last  of  all — a  true  utter¬ 
ance  of  his  own  deep  thoughts — “  and  when  age 
and  sickness  shall  arrive,  and  human  help  shall 
fail,  be  then  Thou,  O  Lord,  the  strength  of  our 
hearts,  and  our  deep  portion  for  evermore  !” 

In  that  temper  he  died,  early  in  January,  1815. 
“  His  influence  was  great,”  said  one  of  his  many 
pious  friends,  Thomas  Bowdler,  “  his  understand¬ 
ing  of  uncommon  power;  and  what  one  fancied 
was  a  careless  opinion  was  often  the  result  of  such 
deep  thought  and  patient  investigation  as  would 
have  taken  other  people  hours  to  express.  I  have 
often  thought  it  was  almost  an  evidence  of  the 
Christian  religion,  that  so  commanding  a  mind  as 
his,  prejudiced  as  it  was  in  early  life  against  en¬ 
thusiasm  of  all  kinds,  should  quietly  and  soberly 
examine  the  subject  for  himself,  with  all  the  force 


230  He?iry  Thornton's  Influence. 

of  his  intellect,  and  end  in  becoming  not  only  con¬ 
vinced  of  the  truth  of  religion,  but  one  of  the  most 
warm  and  devout  of  her  followers.  How  we  are 
all  to  go  on  without  him,  I  can  not  understand. 
As  a  standard  for  us  all  to  look  up  to,  he  was  in¬ 
valuable.  Even  this  day,  the  first  that  has  risen 
on  his  lifeless  remains,  I  have  wanted  his  counsel ; 
and  how  many  are  there  to  whom  his  example  gave 
confidence  and  guidance  in  their  humble  exertions, 
who  leaned  on  him,  and  looked  to  him  in  every 
season  of  doubt  and  temptation  1” 


Meyer  Anselm  Rothschild. 


231 


XI. 

NATHAN  MEYER  ROTHSCHILD. 

[1776-1836.] 

JN  Frankfort,  as  in  most  other  busy  towns,  the 
dirtiest  quarter  is  that  occupied  by  Jew  money¬ 
lenders,  pawnbrokers,  and  hucksters.  A  hundred 
years  ago,  when  it  was  dirtier  than  it  is  now,  one 
of  its  inmates  was  Meyer  Anselm,  whose  little 
shop  was  known  by  its  sign  of  a  red  shield,  or 
roth-schild,  whence  he  came  to  be  called,  and  to 
call  himself,  Meyer  Anselm  Rothschild.  He  sold 
all  sorts  of  second-hand  goods ;  but  he  had  a  spe¬ 
cial  reputation  as  a  collector  of  old  coins,  jewels, 
cameos,  and  pictures,  and  on  that  acc'ount  his 
shop  came  to  be  frequented  by  great  people  as 
well  as  little,  who  came  to  look  at  and  to  buy  his 
curiosities,  and  often  to  borrow  money  of  him. 
One  of  his  customers  was  William,  landgrave  of 
Hesse,  who,  after  several  years’  dealing  with  him, 
liked  him  so  well  that,  when  the  French  bombard¬ 
ed  Frankfort  in  1796,  he  gave  him  and  his  treas¬ 
ures  safe  housing  in  his  fortified  dwelling-place 
at  Cassel.  The  French  ransacked  the  Jews’  quar¬ 
ter,  and,  on  their  retirement,  its  old  inmates  were 
allowed  to  disperse  themselves  over  Frankfort, 
and  to  live  on  an  equality  with  their  Christian 
neighbors.  Meyer  Anselm,  therefore,  as  soon  as 


232  The  First  of  the  Rothschilds. 

he  went  back  to  the  town,  built  himself  a  hand¬ 
some  house  in  one  of  its  most  fashionable  parts. 

He  was  appointed  foreign  banker  and  financial 
agent  to  the  Landgrave  William,  and  at  once  en¬ 
tered  on  a  more  extensive  and  more  profitable  sort 
of  business  than  had  previously  been  within  his 
reach.  He  was  a  rich  man  in  1806,  when  the 
landgrave,  being  in  his  turn  forced  to  flee  from  a 
new  French  invasion  under  Napoleon,  placed  in 
his  keeping  all  his  treasure,  amounting  to  3,000,000 
florins,  or  about  ^250,000.  This  money  Roth¬ 
schild  invested  very  skillfully  ;  lending  at  exor¬ 
bitant  rates,  pawning  for  trifling  sums  the  property 
of  owners  who  in  those  unsettled  times  were  never 
able  to  redeem  it,  and  turning  pence  and  pounds 
in  every  possible  way.  When  he  died,  in  1812,  he 
left  12,000,000  florins  to  be  shared  by  his  five 
sons,  Anselm,  Solomon,  Nathan  Meyer,  Charles, 
and  James.  From  these  five  sons,  on  his  death¬ 
bed,  he  exacted  an  oath  that  they  would  keep  the 
business  together,  extending  it  as  much  as  they 
could,  but  always  acting  in  partnership,  so  that  the 
world  might  know  only  one  house  of  Rothschild. 
The  oath  was  strictly  kept,  with  this  exception, 
that  Nathan  Meyer,  the  third  son,  proving  the 
cleverest  of  them  all,  came  to  be  practically  the 
head  of  the  house,  in  place  of  his  eldest  brother, 
Anselm. 

This  third  son,  Nathan  Meyer,  was  born  at 
Frankfort  on  the  16th  of  September,  1776.  When 
he  was  about  two-and-twenty,  some  fourteen  or 


Nathan  Rothschild' s  Training.  233 

fifteen  years  before  his  father’s  death,  he  left 
Frankfort  to  settle  in  Manchester.  “  There  was 
not  room  enough  for  all  of  us  in  Frankfort,”  he 
said  long  afterward.  “  I  dealt  in  English  goods. 
One  great  trader  came  there  who  had  the  market 
all  to  himself.  He  was  quite  the  great  man,  and 
did  us  a  favor  if  he  sold  us  goods.  Somehow  I 
offended  him,  and  he  refused  to  show  me  his  pat¬ 
terns.  This  was  on  a  Tuesday.  I  said  to  my  fa¬ 
ther,  ‘  I  will  go  England.’  I  could  speak  nothing 
but  German.  On  Thursday  I  started.  The  near¬ 
er  I  got  to  England  the  cheaper  goods  were.  As 
soon  as  I  got  to  Manchester  I  laid  out  all  my 
money — things  were  so  cheap ;  and  I.made  good 
profit.” 

Manchester,  which  had  been  but  a  village,  and 
afterward  a  small  town,  for  more  than  a  thousand 
years,  was  just  then  beginning  to  be  made  a  great 
place  of  business  by  the  new  trade  in  cotton,  and 
the  new  manufacture  of  cotton  goods.  In  it  were 
plenty  of  young  men  glad  to  borrow  money  at 
high  rates  of  interest,  for  the  sake  of  establishing 
themselves  as  merchants  and  manufacturers,  and 
young  Rothschild  was  ready  to  lend  money  to 
every  one  whom  he  could  trust  to  return  it.  Be-  • 
sides  being  a  money-lender,  however,  he  was  also 
a  merchant.  “  I  soon  found,”  he  said,  “  that  there 
were  three  profits — the  raw  material,  the  dyeing, 
and  the  manufacturing.  I  said  to  the  manufac¬ 
turer,  ‘  I  will  supply  you  with  material  and  dye, 
and  you  shall  supply  me  with  the  manufactured 


234  Rothschild  settles  in  London. 

goods.’  So  I  got  three  profits  instead  of  one,  and 
I  could  sell  goods  cheaper  than  any  body.  In  a 
short  time  I  turned  my  ^20,000  into  £ 60,000 .  My 
success  all  turned  on  one  maxim.  I  said,  ‘  I  can 
do  what  another  man  can,  and  so  I  am  a  match  for 
the  man  with  the  patterns,  and  all  the  rest  of 
them !’  Another  advantage  I  had.  I  was  an  off¬ 
hand  man — I  made  my  bargains  at  once.”  It  was 
a  favorite  maxim  with  Rothschild  also  “to  have 
nothing  to  do  with  an  unlucky  place  or  an  unlucky 
man.”  “  I  have  seen  many  clever  men,  very  clever 
men,”  he  said,  “  who  had  not  shoes  to  their  feet. 
I  never  act  with  them.  Their  advice  sounds  very 
well.  Bufefate  is  against  them.  They  can  not 
get  on  themselves ;  and  if  they  can  not  do  good 
to  themselves,  can  they  do  good  to  me  ?” 

Resolving  to  govern  his  life  by  such  rules,  not 
over-exalted,  but  certainly  good  models  of  selfish¬ 
ness,  Nathan  Meyer  Rothschild  put  himself  in  a 
sure  way  to  wealth.  In  or  near  the  year  1803, 
after  five  or  six  years  passed  in  Manchester,  he 
proceeded  to  settle  in  London.  He  considered 
that  money-lending,  the  most  profitable  of  all  his 
businesses,  could  be  carried  on  quite  as  well  in  one 
•  place  as  in  another,  and  that  other  work,  quite  as 
remunerative,  would  be  more  within  his  reach  in 
London  than  in  any  smaller  town.  This  change, 
indeed,  was  part  of  a  plan  by  which  eventually  the 
five  brothers  took  possession  of  all  the  chief  cen¬ 
tres  of  European  commerce — Anselm  remaining 
in  Frankfort,  Solomon  being  sometimes  in  Berlin, 


Old  Jew  Traders.  235 

sometimes  in  Vienna,  Charles  being  in  Naples, 
James  in  Paris,  and  Nathan  in  London. 

London  had  been  a  favorite  resort  of  money¬ 
making  Jews  ever  since  the  Norman  conquest.  In 
the  Middle  Ages,  having  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Old  Jewry  for  their  special  residence,  they  stead¬ 
ily  enriched  themselves  by  trade  with  the  Chris¬ 
tians,  who  thought  it  a  virtue  to  persecute  them. 
It  is  not  strange,  seeing  how  hardly  they  were 
treated,  that  their  natural  love  of  wealth  should 
have  resulted  in  miserly  ways,  and  that  their  natu¬ 
ral  hatred  of  Christians  should  have  grown  into  a 
fierce  antipathy.  Shakspeare’s  “  Merchant  of  Ven¬ 
ice,”  showing  their  position  in  the  trading-towns 
of  Italy,  showed  also,  without  much  exaggeration, 
their  position  in  London  and  other  English  cities. 
When  Antonio,  in  the  play,  comes  to  ask  for  a  loan 
of  money,  Shylock  answers — 

“  Signior  Antonio,  many  a  time  and  oft 
In  the  Rialto  you  have  rated  .me 
About  my  moneys  and  my  usances  : 

Still  have  I  borne  it  with  a  patient  shrug  ; 

For  sufferance  is  the  badge  of  all  our  tribe  : 

You  call  me  misbeliever,  cut-throat  dog, 

And  spit  upon  my  Jewish  gaberdine, 

And  all  for  use  of  that  which  is  mine  own. 

Well,  then,  it  now  appears  you  need  my  help, 

You  that  did  void  your  rheum  upon  my  beard, 

And  foot  me  as  you  spurn  a  stranger  cur 
Over  your  threshold  :  moneys  is  your  suit. 

What  should  I  say  to  you  ?  Should  I  not  say, 

‘  Hath  a  dog  money  ?  is  it  possible 
A  cur  can  lend  three  thousand  ducats  ?’  Or 
Shall  I  bend  low,  and  in  a  bondman’s  key, 


236 


The  Brothers  Goldsmid. 


With  bated  breath  and  whispering  humbleness, 

Say  this : 

‘  Fair  sir,  you  spit  on  me  on  Wednesday  last ; 

You  spurn’d  me  such  a  day ;  another  time 
You  call’d  me  dog ;  and  for  these  courtesies 
I’ll  lend  you  this  much  moneys  ?’  ” 

Through  four  or  five  centuries  the  Jews  in  Eng¬ 
land  were  spurned  and  spit  upon,  yet  made  great 
use  of,  by  the  Christians,  who  gave  them  a  grudg¬ 
ing  residence  among  them.  But  some  two  hun¬ 
dred  years  ago  they  began  to  take  a  better  place 
and  fill  it  better.  Their  prudent  ways  of  money¬ 
making  came  to  be  closely  followed  by  their  rivals 
and  persecutors.  They  were  allowed  to  trade 
with  Christians  on  equal  terms,  and  they  showed  a 
disposition  at  any  rate  not  less  Christian  than  that 
of  many  who  bore  the  title. 

The  most  famous,  and  the  most  deserving  of 
fame,  among  the  wealthy  Jews  who  were  ii^  Lon¬ 
don  when  Rothschild  settled  in  it,  were  the  Broth¬ 
ers  Goldsmid.  Their  father,  Aaron  Goldsmid,  had 
come  from  Hamburg  about  the  middle  of  the  eight¬ 
eenth  century,  and  established  himself  as  a  small 
merchant  in  Leman  Street.  His  small  business 
was  made  a  great  one  by  his  four  sons,  the  two 
younger  of  whom,  Benjamin  and  Abraham,  were 
the  most  prosperous.  In  1792  they  removed  from 
Leman  Street  to  a  house  in  Capel  Street,  oppo¬ 
site  the  Bank  of  England,  and  began  using  the 
wealth  they  had  already  accumulated  as  stock¬ 
brokers  and  money-lenders.  That  was  the  time 
of  English  fighting  with  France,  and  the  Govern- 


Two  Rich  Suicides. 


237 


ment,  being  in  urgent  need  of  money  with  which 
to  pay  for  the  expenses  of  the  war,  were  beginning 
the  great  system  of  national  loans  which  are  now 
so  frequent  and  stupendous.  The  Goldsmids 
were  intrusted  with  much  of  this  business,  and 
they  managed  it  as  well  as  every  thing  else  that 
they  took  in  hand  with  remarkable  honor  and 
ability.  Chance,  as  well  as  their  own  good  sense, 
was  in  their  favor.  In  1794,  when  several  of  their 
neighbors  were  ruined,  their  entire  losses  from 
bad  debts  amounted  to  only  ^50.  Both  brothers 
were  as  generous  as  they  were  rich.  Accumula¬ 
ting  wealth  with  unheard-of  rapidity,  they  distribu¬ 
ted  in  charity  much  more  than  the  tithes  prescribed 
by  their  Mosaic  law.  Numberless  instances  of 
their  sharing  in  every  sort  of  philanthropic  work 
are  on  record,  and  the  memory  of  their  princely 
benevolence  has  not  yet  ceased  among  old  City 
men.  They  were  also  famous  for  the  splendid 
hospitality  with  which  they  entertained  all  the 
leaders  of  society  in  their  day.  They  died  young, 
however,  and  dismally.  In  a  fit  of  melancholy 
Benjamin  Goldsmid  hanged  himself  from  his  own 
bedstead  in  1808,  and  in  1810  Abraham  Goldsmid 
shot  himself  in  his  own  garden. 

In  the  latter  year,  also,  at  a  riper  age,  died  a 
yet  greater  City  worthy,  Sir  Francis  Baring.  Bar¬ 
ing,  the  grandson  of  a  Lutheran  minister,  who  came 
to  England  soon  after  the  accession  of  William  of 
Orange,  and  the  son  of  a  cloth  merchant,  who 
started  a  small  business  in  Devonshire,  and  made 


238 


The  Barings. 


it  a  large  one  in  London,  was  born  in  1736.  He 
carried  on  his  father’s  trade,  and  greatly  augment¬ 
ed  it.  He  established  an  immense  traffic  with  the 
East  Indies  and  America,  and  promptly  following 
the  lead  of  the  younger  Goldsmids,  dealt  largely 
in  national  loans  and  public  securities.  Even  his 
enemies  declared  him  to  be  “  a  man  of  consum¬ 
mate  knowledge  and  inflexible  honor.”  “  Few 
men,”  it  was  said,  “  understood  better  the  real  in¬ 
terests  of  trade,  and  few  men  arrived  at  the  high¬ 
est  rank  of  commercial  life  with  more  unsullied 
integrity.”  Dying  at  the  age  of  seventy-four,  he 
left  a  fortune  worth  ^1,100,000,  and  a  great  house 
of  business,  to  be  made  yet  greater  through  the 
enterprise  of  his  sons,  chief  of  whom  was  Alexan¬ 
der  Baring,  afterward  Baron  Ashburton.  “  There 
are  six  great  powers  in  Europe — England,  France, 
Russia,  Austria,  Prussia,  and  Baring  Brothers,” 
said  a  great  statesman  in  1818,  when  Alexander 
Baring,  courted  and  dreaded  by  sovereigns  because 
of  his  vast  wealth  and  the  vast  influence  that  it 
gave  him,  was  deciding  whether  there  should  be 
peace  or  war  in  Europe. 

The  Goldsmids  and  the  Barings  were  the  men 
with  whom  young  Nathan  Meyer  Rothschild,  com¬ 
ing  to  London  in  1803,  with  a  determination  to 
become  the  greatest  man  of  all  in  the  commercial 
world,  had  to  compete.  He  lacked  the  higher 
graces,  the  goodness  of  heart  and  the  spotless 
honesty,  of  his  first  rivals.  But  he  surpassed 
them,  eminent  as  they  were,  in  the  tact  and  shrewd- 


Rothschild's  Marriage. 


239 


ness  which  go  so  far  to  the  making  of  commercial 
success.  When  he  seemed  to  be  most  reckless  in 
his  speculations,  he  was  acting  with  a  cautiousness 
which  insured  success. 

In  1806  he  married  the  daughter  of  Levi  Bur¬ 
net  Cohen,  one  of  the  wealthiest  Jew  merchants 
then  in  London.  Prudent  Cohen,  it  is  said,  after  ac¬ 
cepting  him  as  his  daughter’s  suitor,  became  nerv¬ 
ous  about  the  wisdom  of  the  match.  A  man  who 
traded  so  boldly,  he  thought,  was  very  likely  to 
squander  his  own  and  other  people’s  money.  He, 
therefore,  asked  for  proof  of  young  Rothschild’s 
wealth,  and  of  its  safe  investment.  Young  Roth¬ 
schild  refused  to  give  it,  answering  that,  as  far  as 
wealth  and  good  character  went,  Mr.  Cohen  could 
not  do  better  than  give  him  all  his  daughters  in 
marriage. 

If  “  good  character  ”  meant  steadiness  and 
skill  in  money-making,  he  was  certainly  right. 
Nathan  Rothschild  was  without  a  peer  in  that  art. 
Having  steadily  advanced  his  fortune  in  private 
ways  through  some  years,  he  began  in  1810,  the 
year  in  which  both  Sir  Francis  Baring  and  Benja¬ 
min  Goldsmid  died,  to  trade  in  national  securities. 
He  bought  up  for  a  trifling  sum  a  great  number 
of  the  Duke  of  Wellington’s  drafts  for  the  expen¬ 
ses  of  the  Peninsular  War,  which  the  Government 
was  too  poor  to  pay  when  they  fell  due.  These 
he  sold  to  the  Government  at  their  full  price,  on 
the  understanding  that  they  were  not  to  be  paid 
for  for  some  time  to  come.  By  this  means  he 


240  Rothschild's  Mo7iey-Mcikmg  Ways. 

helped  the  Government  out  of  a  pressing  difficulty, 
and  at  the  same  time  insured  a  large  profit  to  him¬ 
self.  “  It  was  the  best  business  I  ever  did,”  he 
said. 

It  was  this  business  that  started  him  on  a  new 
stage  in  his  wonderful  course  of  money-making.  It 
made  friends  for  him  at  the  Treasury,  and  led  to 
his  employment  in  other  services  of  the  same  sort, 
and  also  enabled  him  to  procure  early  information 
as  to  the  progress  of  the  war  then  waging,  and 
as  to  the  policy  of  the  English  and  foreign  Gov¬ 
ernments,  which  gave  him  a  notable  advantage 
over  his  fellow-stockjobbers.  The  ramifications 
of  the  Rothschild  establishment  and  connections 
on  the  Continent,  moreover,  made  him  the  best 
agent  of  the  State  in  conveying  money  to  the  ar¬ 
mies  in  Spain  and  elsewhere,  and  this  agency 
proved  very  lucrative  to  him  in  various  ways. 
Seeing  the  great  benefit  that  he  derived  from  his 
appliances  for  securing  early  and  secret  informa¬ 
tion  as  to  the  progress  of  foreign  affairs,  he  made 
it  his  business  to  extend  and  increase  them  to  the 
very  utmost.  He  turned  pigeon-fancier,  and,  buy¬ 
ing  all  the  best  birds  he  could  find,  he  employed 
some  of  his  leisure  in  training  them,  and  so  organ¬ 
ized  a  machinery  for  rapid  transmission  of  mes¬ 
sages  unrivalled  in  the  days  when  railways  and 
telegraphs  were  unknown.  A  note  tied  to  a  pig¬ 
eon  taught  to  fly  direct  from  Paris  to  London  reach¬ 
ed  him  in  a  quarter  of  the  time  that  was  required 
for  sending  it  by  any  other  way.  He  also  made  # 


At  the  Battle  of  Waterloo.  241 

careful  study  of  routes,  distances,  and  various  fa¬ 
cilities  for  rapid  travelling,  and  mapped  out  new 
roads  for  his  messengers.  The  South-eastern 
Railway  Company,  it  is  said,  established  their  line 
of  steamers  between  Folkestone  and  Boulogne, 
because  it  was  found  that  Rothschild  had  already 
proved  that  route  to  be  the  best  for  the  dispatch 
of  his  swift-rowing  boats. 

Rothschild’s  greatest  achievement  in  overreach¬ 
ing  distance  and  his  fellow-speculators  was  in  1815. 
While  the  battle  of  Waterloo  was  being  fought  on 
the  18th  of  June,  he  stood  on  a  neighboring  height, 
watching  its  progress  almost  as  eagerly  as  did  Bo¬ 
naparte  and  Wellington  themselves.  All  day  long 
he  followed  the  fighting  with  strained  eyes,  know¬ 
ing  that  on  its  issue,  to  a  great  extent,  depended 
his  fortune,  as  well  as  the  welfare  of  Europe.  At 
sunset  he  saw  that  the  victory  was  with  Wellington 
and  the  Allies.  Then,  without  a  moment’s  delay, 
he  mounted  a  horse  that  had  been  kept  in  readi¬ 
ness  for  him  and  hurried  homeward.  Everywhere 
on  his  road  fresh  horses  or  carriages  were  in  wait¬ 
ing  to  help  him  over  the  ground.  Riding  or  driv¬ 
ing  all  night,  he  reached  Ostend  at  daybreak. 
There,  however,  he  found  the  sea  so  stormy  that 
the  boatmen  refused  to  trust  themselves  to  it.  At 
last  he  prevailed  upon  one  of  them  to  risk  his  life  - 
for  ^80,  to  be  paid  to  him  if  he  would  cross  over 
to  Dover ;  and  in  this  way  Rothschild  succeeded 
in  crossing  the  Channel  with  very  little  loss  of 
time.  At  Dover,  and  at  the  other  stopping-places 

Q 


242  More  Money-Making. 

on  the  road  to  London,  fresh  horses  were  in  wait¬ 
ing,  and  he  was  in  London  before  midnight.  Next 
morning — the  morning  of  the  20th  of  June — he 
was  one  of  the  first  to  enter  the  Stock  Exchange. 
In  gloomy  whispers  he  told  those  who,  as  usual, 
crowded  round  him  for  news.,  that  Blucher  and  his 
Prussians  had  been  routed  by  Napoleon  before 
Wellington  had  been  able  to  reach  the  field.  He 
did  not  add,  that  afterward  Wellington  had  turned 
the  fortunes  of  the  day,  and  secured  peace  for  Eu¬ 
rope.  The  effect  of  his  report  was,  as  he  intend¬ 
ed,  a  sort  of  panic  among  the  capitalists  and  spec¬ 
ulators.  Fearing  that  the  funds  would  sink  very 
low,  they  tried  to  sell  out  as  quickly  as  possible, 
and  in  doing  so  sold  out  at  very  great  loss.  The 
men  who  bought  from  them  were  in  secret  league 
with  Rothschild,  and  a  great  quantity  of  scrip  was 
transferred  to  his  coffers  during  that  and  the  fol¬ 
lowing  day.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  second  day, 
the  real  issue  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo  was  made 
known.  Very  soon  the  funds  were  higher  than 
they  had  been  during  many  previous  weeks — far 
higher  than  they  had  been  during  the  two  days 
of  panic ;  and  Rothschild,  quickly  selling  the  scrip 
that  he  had  bought,  found,  it  was  reported,  that  he 
had  made  something  like  a  million  pounds  by  his 
•rapid  travelling  and  clever  deception. 

Other  millions  were  collected,  rather  more  slow¬ 
ly,  in  ways  of  which  some,  at  any  rate,  can  hardly 
be  called  honest.  One  of  his  smart  speculations 
was  in  mercury.  Nearly  all  the  mercury  procura- 


Rothschild' s  Trade  in  Loans .  243 

ble  in  Europe  comes  either  from  Idria,  in  Illyria, 
or  from  Almaden,  in  Spain.  The  Almaden  mines, 
famous  and  profitable  through  five-and-twenty  cen¬ 
turies,  had  fallen  for  some  years  into  disuse  before 
1831,  when  Rothschild,  becoming  contractor  for  a 
Spanish  loan,  proposed,  as  part  payment  for  his 
trouble,  to  hold  them  during  a  certain  time  at  a 
nominal  rent.  That  was  cheerfully  agreed  to,  and 
the  mines  soon  began  to  give  token  of  unusual  ac¬ 
tivity.  In  the  mean  while  the  great  merchant  also 
got  possession  of  the  mines  at  Idria.  Thus  he  ob¬ 
tained  a  monopoly  of  mercury,  and  was  able  to 
charge  for  it  whatever  he  thought  fit.  Its  price 
was  nearly  doubled,  and  Rothschild  was  able  to 
make  an  immense  profit  by  the  arrangement.  It 
was  nothing  to  him  that  the  exorbitant  prices  drove 
some  smaller  trickster  to  scrape  all  the  quicksil¬ 
ver  from  old  looking-glasses  and  the  like,-  and 
work  it  up  into  poisonous  calomel,  as  well  as  bad 
material  for  new  mirrors,  thermometers,  and  so 
forth. 

Most  of  Rothschild’s  wealth,  however,  was 
made  in  less  disreputable  ways.  After  he  had 
firmly  established  himself  in  London,  his  great 
business  was  in  negotiating  foreign  loans.  These 
he  was  the  first  to  make  popular  in  the  English 
market.  He  became  the  principal  agent  of  all 
the  great  and  needy  governments — French  and 
German,  Russian  and  Turkish,  North  American 
and  South  American — in  disposing  of  their  scrip 
to  English  stock-jobbers.  London  never  had  in 


244  Rothschild' s  View  of  Money. 

it  a  man  more  thoroughly  competent  for  the  car¬ 
rying  on  of  all  sorts  of  money-making  projects. 
He  was  master  of  little  things  as  well  as  great. 
“  His  memory  was  so  retentive,”  we  are  told, 
“  that,  notwithstanding  the  immense  transactions 
on  which  he  entered  on  every  foreign  post-day, 
and  that  he  never  took  a  note  of  them,  he  could, 
on  his  return  home,  with  perfect  exactness,  dictate 
the  whole  to  his  clerks.” 

Rothschild  had  few  tastes  or  pleasures  out  of 
the  Stock  Exchange  and  his  counting-house  in  St. 
Swithin’s  Lane.  When  Louis  Sphor,  the  great 
German  musician,  called  on  him  in  June,  1820, 
with  a  letter  of  introduction  from  his  brother  in 
Frankfort,  he  said  to  him,  “  I  understand  nothing 
of  music.  This  ” — patting  his  pocket,  and  rattling 
the  loose  coins  therein — “  is  my  music  ;  we  under¬ 
stand  that  on  ’Change.” 

Money-making  was  the  one  pursuit  and  enjoy¬ 
ment  of  Rothschild’s  life.  He  cared  less  than 
many  do  for  the  money  when  it  was  made.  “  He 
had  no  taste  or  inclination,”  says  one  of  his  friends, 
“  for  what  every  Englishman  seeks  as  soon  as  he 
has  money  to  buy  it — comfort  in  every  respect. 
His  ambition  was  to  arrive  at  his  aim  more  quick¬ 
ly  and  more  effectually  than  others,  and  to  steer 
toward  it  with  more  energy.  When  his  end  was 
reached,  it  had  lost  all  its  charm  for  him,  and  he 
turned  his  never-wearying  mind  to  something  else.” 
It  was  in  the  scramblings  and  fightings,  the  plots 
and  tricks,  of  making  money,  not  at  all  in  the 


His  Charities . 


245 

spending,  not  much  in  the  hoarding  of  it,  that  he 
delighted. 

“  I  hope,”  said  a  dinner-companion  to  him  on 
one  occasion,  “  I  hope  that  your  children  are  not 
too  fond  of  money  and  business,  to  the  exclusion 
of  more  important  things.  I  am  sure  you  would 
not  wish  that.” 

“  I  am  sure  I  should  wish  that,”  he  answered ; 
“  I  wish  them  to  give  mind,  and  soul,  and  heart, 
and  body — every  thing  to  business.  That  is  the 
way  to  be  happy.  It  requires  a  great  deal  of  bold¬ 
ness,  and  a  great  deal  of  caution,  to  make  a  great 
fortune  :  and  when  you  have  got  it,  it  requires  ten 
times  as  much  wit  to  keep  it.” 

To  all  who  were  willing  to  work  in  this  fashion, 
he  was,  after  his  fashion,  a  good  friend.  Some  of 
the  wealthiest  commercial  houses  now  in  London 
owe  their  prosperity  to  the  readiness  with  which 
Rothschild,  seeing  good  business  qualities  in  the 
young  men  around  him,  helped  them  on  with  his 
great  influence.  There  were  cases  in  which  he 
went  out  of  his  way  to  put  exceptional  oppor¬ 
tunities  of  money-making  in  the  way  of  his  favor¬ 
ites.  Even  his  charities,  according  to  his  own  con¬ 
fession,  were  eccentric,  and  chiefly  indulged  in  for 
his  own  entertainment.  “  Sometimes,  to  amuse 
myself,”  he  said,  “  I  give  a  beggar  a  guinea.  He 
thinks  it  is  a  mistake,  and,  for  fear  I  should  find 
it  out,  off  he  runs  as  hard  as  he  can.  I  advise 
you  to  give  a  beggar  a  guinea  sometimes ;  it  is 
very  amusing.” 


246 


Rothschild' s  Jokes. 


The  great  man’s  jokes  were  not  very  witty.  One 
of  the  best  of  them  owes  its  point  to  his  Jewish 
pronunciation.  At  a  Lord  Mayor’s  dinner  he  sat 
next  to  a  guest  noted  for  his  stinginess,  who  chanced 
to  say  that,  for  his  part,  he  preferred  mutton  to 
venison.  “  Ah !  I  see,”  Rothschild  answered ; 
“you  like  mutton  because  it  is  sheep  (cheap), 
and  other  people  like  venison  because  it  is  deer 
(dear).” 

Another  saying  attributed  to  him  gives  evidence, 
if  true,  of  some  humor.  Once,  it  is  said,  a  German 
prince,  visiting  London,  brought  letters  of  credit 
to  the  banker.  He  was  shown  into  the  inner 
room  of  the  famous  counting-house  in  St.  Swithin’s 
Lane,  where  Rothschild  sat,  busy  with  a  heap  of 
papers.  The  name  being  announced,  Rothschild 
nodded,  offered  his  visitor  a  chair,  and  then  went 
on  with  the  work  before  him.  For  this  treatment 
the  prince,  who  expected  that  every  thing  should 
give  way  to  one  of  his  rank  and  dignity,  was  not 
prepared.  Standing  a  minute  or  two,  he  exclaimed, 
“  Did  you  not  hear,  sir,  who  I  am  ?  I  am  ” — re¬ 
peating  his  titles.  “  Oh,  very  well,”  said  Roth¬ 
schild  ;  “  take  two  chairs  then.” 

At  another  time  two  strangers  were  admitted 
into  the  same  private  room.  They  were  tall  for¬ 
eigners,  with  mustaches  and  beards,  such  as  were 
not  often  seen  in  the  city  thirty  or  forty  years  ago, 
and  Rothschild,  always  timid,  was  frightened  from 
the  moment  of  their  entrance.  He  put  his  own 
interpretation  upon  the  excited  movements  with 


A  Millionaire* s  Perils.  247 

which  they  fumbled  about  in  their  pockets ;  and 
before  the  expected  pistols  could  be  produced,  he 
had  thrown  a  great  ledger  in  the  direction  of  their 
heads,  and  brought  in  a  bevy  of  clerks  by  his  cries 
of  “  Murder.”  The  strangers  were  pinioned,  and 
then,  after  long  questionings  and  explanations,  it 
appeared  that  they  were  wealthy  bankers  from  the 
Continent,  who,  nervous  in  the  presence  of  a  bank¬ 
er  so  much  more  wealthy,  had  had  some  difficulty 
in  finding  the  letters  of  introduction  which  they 
were  to  present. 

During  the  latter  years  of  his  life  Rothschild 
was  said  to  be  always  in  fear  of  assassination. 
“  You  must  be  a  very  happy  man,  Mr.  Roth¬ 
schild,”  said  a  guest,  at  one  of  the  splendid  ban¬ 
quets  for  which  his  Piccadilly  house  was  famous. 
“  Happy !  me  happy !”  he  exclaimed.  “  What, 
happy!  when  just  as  you  are  going  to  dine  you 
have  a  letter  placed  in  your  hands  saying, c  If  you 
do  not  send  me  £5 00  I  will  blow  your  brains 
out !’  Me  happy  !” 

Perhaps,  however,  Nathan  Rothschild  was  as 
happy  as  any  one  as  full  of  the  cares  of  business 
as  he  was  could  be.  He  was  a  zealous  money-ma¬ 
ker  to  the  last.  His  father  had  directed  that  the 
house  of  Rothschild  should  continue  united  from 
generation  to  generation.  Each  of  the  brothers 
had  a  share  in  all  the  others’  concerns.  It  was 
in  furtherance  of  the  general  scheme  of  keeping 
the  family  as  compact  as  possible  that,  some  time 
before,  Nathan’s  youngest  brother,  James,  had  mar- 


248 


“II  est  Mort” 


riecl  one  of  his  nieces.  In  1836  it  was  resolved 
that  Nathan’s  eldest  son,  Lionel,  should  marry  one 
of  his  cousins,  a  daughter  of  Anselm  Rothschild, 
of  Frankfort.  With  that  object  the  father  and 
son  went  to  Frankfort  in  June.  But  on  the  wed¬ 
ding-day  Nathan  fell  ill.  He  died  on  the  28th  of 
J  uly,  not  quite  sixty  years  of  age.  On  the  morn¬ 
ing  following  his  death  one  of  his  own  carrier- 
pigeons  was  shot  near  Brighton.  When  it  was 
picked  up  there  was  found  under  one  of  its  wings 
a  scrap  of  paper  with  these  words  written  on  it, 
“  II  est  mort.” 

None  but  his  own  kindred  ever  knew  what  was 
Rothschild’s  real  wealth.  The  guesses  ranged 
between  ^3,000,000  and  ^10,000,000. 

He  was  buried  in  London,  in  a  coffin  “  so  hand¬ 
somely  carved  and  decorated,  with  large  silver  han¬ 
dles  at  both  sides  and  ends,  that  it  appeared  more 
like  a  cabinet  or  splendid  piece  of  furniture  than 
a  receptacle  for  the  dead.”  The  chief  rabbi,  who 
preached  the  funeral  sermon,  applauded  in  it  the 
charity  of  Nathan  Meyer  Rothschild,  who,  during 
his  lifetime,  had  intrusted  him  with  some  thousands 
of  pounds  for  secret  almsgiving.  But  that  was  all 
that  the  world  ever  heard  of  the  rich  man’s  use  of 
his  riches  in  any  sort  of  disinterested  charity,  or 
in  any  way  which,  whether  it  did  good  to  others 
or  not,  was  not  chiefly  chosen  for  his  own  amuse¬ 
ment  or  his  own  advantage. 


John  Gourney, 


249 


XII. 

SAMUEL  GURNEY. 

[1786-1856.] 

one  of  the  Norman  barons  who  came  to  Eng¬ 
land  with  William  the  Conqueror  in  1066  was 
Hugh  de  Gournay;  and  when  William  divided 
the  best  portions  of  the  land  among  his  leading 
followers,  large  grants  in  Norfolk,  Suffolk,  and  else¬ 
where  were  made  to  the  Lord  of  Gournay.  His 
descendants  were  men  of  mark  during  the  ensu¬ 
ing  centuries.  In  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 
if  not  before,  they  began  to  be  merchants,  the  young¬ 
er  sons  generally  taking  to  commerce,  while  the 
elder  ones  settled  down  as  country  gentlemen.  One 
of  these  trading  members  of  the  family,  a  John 
Gourney  or  Gurney,  who  was  born  in  1655,  and 
who  became  a  Quaker  soon  after  the  Quaker 
doctrines  had  been  first  preached  by  George  Fox, 
became  especially  eminent  in  business.  He  was 
a  manufacturer,  a  merchant,  and  a  banker  in  Nor¬ 
wich,  and  his  offspring  carried  on  his  callings,  es¬ 
pecially  that  of  banking,  with  notable  success.  It 
is  with  his  great-great-grandson  that  we  have  here 
to  concern  ourselves. 

Samuel  Gurney,  the  brother  of  Elizabeth  Fry 
and  Joseph  John  Gurney,  two  eminent  philanthro¬ 
pists,  was  born  at  Earlham,  near  Norwich,  on  the 


250  Samuel  Gurney's  Training. 

1 8th  of  October,  1786.  He  was  John  Gurney’s  sec¬ 
ond  son  and  ninth  child.  At  the  age  of  seven  he 
was  put  to  school  with  the  Rev.  John  Henry  Brown, 
a  pupil  of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Parr,  and  at  fourteen 
he  was  apprenticed  to  the  Clothworkers’  Company 
in  London,  and  placed  in  the  counting-house,  in 
St.  Mildred’s  Court,  Poultry,  in  which  his  brother- 
in-law,  Joseph  Fry,  who  was  also  a  partner  in  the 
bank  of  Frys  &  Chapman,  carried  on  an  exten¬ 
sive  trade  as  a  tea-merchant.  “  He  took  to  busi¬ 
ness,  and  liked  it,”  according  to  the  report  of  his 
niece,  whose  first  remembrances  of  him  were  as 
an  inmate  in  the  St.  Mildred’s  Couft  household. 
“  In  the  counting-house,  as  well  as  in  domestic 
life,  he  was  extremely  amiable  and  cheerful,  and 
was  beloved  by  the  whole  establishment.  Although 
not  brought  up 'in  conformity  to  the  costume  or 
speech  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  he  showed  no 
propensity  to  follow  fashions  or  gayety  of  appear¬ 
ance,  beyond  a  suitable  neatness  of  attire.”  From 
the  very  first,  indeed,  he  seems  to  have  been  so 
thoroughly  a  man,  or  rather  a  boy,  of  business,  as 
to  have  cared  for  no  lighter  occupations.  In  1807, 
when  his  sister  Hannah  married  Thomas  Fowell 
Buxton,  he  went  down  to  the  wedding,  but,  it  is 
recorded,  tired  of  the  festivities  long  before  they 
were  over,  and  was  glad  to  get  back  to  his  book¬ 
keeping  and  money-changing. 

In  the  following  year,  however,  Samuel  Gurney 
was  married  himself,  his  wife  being  Elizabeth,  the 
daughter  of  James  Sheppard,  of  Ham  House,  in 


His  Progress  in  Business.  251 

Essex,  a  handsome  residence  that  soon  descended 
to  the  young  couple,  and  was  their  place  of  abode 
during  nearly  the  whole  of  their  married  life.  The 
wealth  that  came  to  Samuel  Gurney  from  his  fa¬ 
ther-in-law,  as  well  as  that  bequeathed  to  him  by  his 
father,  who  died  in  1809,  helped  him  to  make  rapid 
progress  in  the  new  business  in  which  he  had  em¬ 
barked  a  little  while  before,  on  his  reaching  the 
age  of  twenty-one. 

The  business  had  begun  a  few  years  earlier  than 
that,  growing  out  of  a  yet  earlier  connection  be¬ 
tween  Joseph  Smith,  a  wool  factor  in  London, 
of  the  firm  of  Smith  &  Holt,  and  the  Norwich 
Bank.  Joseph  Smith  had  found  the  advantage 
of  applying  part  of  his  savings  as  a  merchant  to 
the  then  very  slightly-developed  trade  of  bill-dis¬ 
counting,  and  John  Gurney,  of  Norwich,  with  whom 
he  had  been  acquainted  long  before,  when  both 
were  simply  dealers  in  raw  wool  and  manufactured 
cloths,  also  found  the  advantage  of  sending  up  to 
him  some  of  the  surplus  money  of  the  Norwich 
Bank  for  investment  in  the  same  way,  paying  to 
Smith,  as  his  commission,  a  quarter  per  cent,  on  the 
money  laid  out  in  each  transaction.  This  arrange¬ 
ment  having  continued  for  some  time,  it  occurred 
to  Smith’s  confidential  clerk,  Thomas  Richardson, 
by  whom  most  of  the  bill  business  had  been  done, 
that  there  was  room  in  London  for  a  separate  es¬ 
tablishment  devoted  to  trade  in  bills.  He  asked 
his  employer  to  open  an'  establishment  of  that  sort, 
taking  him  as  managing  partner  therein.  This 


252  Over  end ,  Gurney ,  Company. 

Joseph  Smith  refused  to  do,  and  Richardson  re¬ 
signed  his  clerkship  in  consequence.  He  found 
the  Norwich  Gurneys,  however,  more  favorable  to 
his  project,  and  about  the  year  1800  the  house  of 
Richardson,  Overend,  &  Company  was  founded, 
the  management  being  divided  between  him  and 
John  Overend,  formerly  chief  clerk  in  the  bank  of 
Smith,  Payne,  &  Company.  Simon  Martin,  an  old 
clerk  in  the  Norwich  Bank,  went  to  London  to 
help  to  build  up  the  business,  and  to  watch  its 
movements  on  behalf  of  the  bank,  whence  most 
of  the  money  was  obtained  for  investment.  The 
enterprise  throve  wonderfully  from  the  first,  one 
great  source  of  its  popularity  being  the  change  in¬ 
troduced  by  the  new  firm,  which  charged  the  quar¬ 
ter  per  cent,  commission  against  the  borrowers  of 
the  money,  instead  of  the  lenders  as  heretofore ; 
and  in  1807  John  Gurney  added  vastly  to  its 
strength  by  introducing  his  son  Samuel  as  a  part¬ 
ner.  About  that  time  Thomas  Richardson  retired 
from  the  business.  It  was  carried  on  under  the  name 
of  Overend  &  Company,  even  after  John  Overend’s 
death,  until  the  secret  of  its  connection  with  the 
Norwich  house  could  no  longer  be  kept,  and  it 
assumed  its  world-famous  title  of  Overend,  Gur¬ 
ney^  Company. 

It  won  its  influence  and  fame  through  the  skill¬ 
ful  way  in  which  its  founders  contrived  to  profit  by 
the  altered  circumstances  of  modern  commerce. 
In  simpler  times  money  meant  only  gold,  silver, 
and  other  precise  sorts  of  current  coin.  But  the 


Paper  Money. 


253 


increase  of  trade  and  population,  carrying  with  it 
a  yet  greater  increase  in  the  demand  for  money 
and  the  uses  to  which  it  may  be  put,  has  necessi¬ 
tated  an  entire  revolution  in  the  finance  of  com¬ 
merce. 

Money  is  now  not  gold  and  silver  alone,  but 
gold,  silver,  paper,  and  any  thing  else  that  can  be 
regarded  as  a  trustworthy  agent  in  the  interchange 
of  commodities  and  the  bartering  of  capital,  labor, 
and  the  like.  Were  we  forced  now  to  carry  on  all 
our  commercial  dealings  by  means  of  gold  and 
silver,  it  would  only  be  possible,  in  spite  of  the  in¬ 
crease  of  our  stores  of  these  metals,  to  continue  a 
very  small  portion  of  our  present  trade.  This, 
however,  no  one  now  attempts  to  do.  The  legal 
currency,  whether  gold,  silver,  or  bank-notes,  is 
only  a  sort  of  pocket-money  in  comparison  with 
the  real  currency  of  trade.  It  serves  for  the  small¬ 
er  sort  of  retail  purchases,  for  payments  across  the 
counter,  and  the  like  ;  but  the  great  merchant  has 
not  in  his  possession  all  through  his  lifetime  actual 
money  equal  in  amount  to  the  paper  equivalent 
of  money  that  passes  through  his  hands  every  day 
in  the  week.  All  his  important  business  is  car¬ 
ried  on  exclusively  by  means  of  bills,  bonds,  checks, 
and  the  other  materials  included  in  the  terms 
“commercial  debt”  and  “credit.”  His  ready 
money  is  lodged  with  a  banker,  as  has  been  the 
practice  since  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  cen¬ 
tury,  except  that  now  he  draws  checks  for  so  much 
as  he  needs  for  use  from  time  to  time,  instead 


254 


Modern  Credit. 


of  receiving  from  his  banker  a  number  of  promisr 
sory  notes,  to  be  passed  to  and  fro,  while  the  actual 
deposit  was  in  the  banker’s  hands,  to  be  used  in 
whatever  safe  and  profitable  way  he  chose.  Now, 
however,  the  checks  are,  in  comparatively  few 
cases,  exchanged  for  real  money,  they  being  piled 
up  by  the  bankers,  into  whose  hands  they  come, 
and  paired  off  one  with  another,  or  in  heaps  to¬ 
gether,  while  the  deposits  that  they  represent  are 
left  untouched.  In  this  way  the  money  does  double 
work,  being  itself  available  for  use  by  the  bank¬ 
er  or  his  agents,  while  the  equivalent  checks 
are  quite  as  serviceable  for  all  the  purposes  of 
trade. 

And  this  is  only  the  simplest  instance  of  the 
modern  principle  of  credit.  In  all  sorts  of  ways, 
every  bit  of  money  and  every  thing  else  that  can 
be  taken  as  a  representative  of  wealth,  whether 
actual  or  prospective,  is  turned  over  and  over, 
each  turning  being  a  creation,  to  all  intents  and 
purposes,  of  so  much  fresh  money.  A  merchant, 
for  example,  buys  worth  of  goods  for  ex¬ 

port,  say  to  India,  China,  or  Australia.  He  pays 
for  the  same  by  means  of  a  bill  of  exchange,  ac¬ 
cepted  as  soon  as  possible,  but  not  payable  till  two 
or  three  months  after  date.  The  manufacturer  or 
agent  of  whom  he  buys  the  goods,  however,  does 
not  wait  all  that  time  for  his  money.  In  all  prob¬ 
ability  he  immediately  gets  the  bill  discounted, 
thereby  losing  some  ^15  or  ^20,  but  having  the 
sum  of  ,£980  or  ^985  available  for  appropriation 


Samuel  Gurneys  Business.  255 

in  other  ways,  and  thus  for  the  acquisition  of  fresh 
profits.  Before  the  original  bill  falls  due,  he  has 
built  perhaps  twenty  fresh  transactions  on  the 
basis  of  the  first  one,  and  so,  in  effect,  has  turn¬ 
ed  his  ^1000  into  ^20,000,  less  the  ^300  or  ^400 
that  have  been  deducted  by  the  bill-broker  as  dis¬ 
count.  And  the  same  original  transaction  has 
been  made  the  groundwork  of  a  number  of  other 
transactions  on  the  part  of  the  merchant  who 
bought  the  goods.  He  bought  them  for  ^1000,  to 
sell  again  for,  say,  ^1200,  part  of  the  difference 
being  his  profit,  part  being  absorbed  in  freight,  in¬ 
surance,  and  so  forth.  He  is  not  likely  to  be  paid 
for  the  goods  in  less  than  six  months’  time,  and  he 
has  to  pay  for  them  in  two  or  three  months.  But 
long  before  either  of  those  terms  expires,  he  has 
raised  part  of  the  money  on  the  security  of  his  bill 
of  lading,  and  so  is  enabled  to  enter  on  other 
transactions,  just  as  the  manufacturer  had  done. 
In  such  ways  as  these,  and  they  are  numberless,  a 
very  small  amount  of  actual  money  goes  to  the 
building  up,  on  the  one  side,  of  a  vast  structure 
of  credit,  and  on  the  other  of  a  vast  structure  of 
commerce. 

There  was  a  hazy  comprehension  of  this  sys¬ 
tem  long  centuries  ago.  “  If  you  were  ignorant 
of  this,  that  credit  is  the  greatest  capital  of  all  to¬ 
ward  the  acquisition  of  wealth,”  said  Demosthenes, 
“  you  would  be  utterly  ignorant.”  But  the  modern 
theory  of  credit  is  very  modern  indeed,  having  al¬ 
most  its  first  exemplification,  on  a  large  scale,  in 


256  Gurney's  Business  Extension . 

the  establishment  of  Overend,  Gurney,  &’  Com¬ 
pany.  This  house,  as  we  saw,  was  established  to 
make  a  separate  business  of  bill-discounting,  much 
more  complete  and  extensive  than  the  chance 
trade  in  bills  that  had  formerly  been,  and  that  con¬ 
tinued  to  be,  carried  on  by  bankers,  merchants,  and 
all  sorts  of  irregular  money-lenders.  Very  soon 
after  the  time  of  Samuel  Gurney’s  supremacy  in  it 
it  began  to  assume  gigantic  proportions,  and  it  was 
for  some  thirty  or  forty  years  the  greatest  discount¬ 
ing-house  in  the  world,  the  parent  of  all  the  later 
and  rival  establishments  that  have  started  up  in 
London  and  elsewhere.  At  first  only  discounting 
bills,  its  founders  soon  saw  the  advantage  of  lend¬ 
ing  money  on  all  sorts  of  other  securities,  and 
their  cellars  came  to  be  loaded  with  a  constantly 
varying  heap  of  dock-warrants,  bills  of  lading, 
shares  in  railways  and  public  companies,  and  the 
like.  To  do  this,  of  course,  vast  funds  were  neces¬ 
sary,  very  much  in  excess  of  the  immense  wealth 
accumulated  by  the  Gurneys  in  Norwich  and  else¬ 
where.  Therefore,  having  proved  the  value  and 
stability  of  his 'business,  Samuel  Gurney  easily  per¬ 
suaded  those  who  had  money  to  invest  to  place  it 
in  his  hands,  they  receiving  for  the  same  a  fixed 
and  fair  return  of  interest,  and  he  obtaining  with 
it  as  much  extra  profit  as  the  fluctuations  of  the 
money-market  and  the  increasing  needs  of  trade 
made  possible.  He  became,  in  fact,  a  new  sort  of 
merchant,  buying  credit — that  is,  borrowing  mon¬ 
ey — on  the  one  hand,  and  selling  credit — that  is, 


A  Panic  Year . 


257 

lending  money — on  the  other,  and  deriving  from 
the  trade  his  full  share  of  profits. 

Great  help  came  to  his  money-making  and  to 
his  commercial  influence  from  the  panic  of  1825. 
That  panic  arose  partly  from  the  excessive  specu¬ 
lation  which  then  existed  in  joint-stock  companies 
at  home,  as  well  as  in  Continental  mines,  Ameri¬ 
can  cotton,  and  other  branches  of  foreign  com¬ 
merce.  Several  London  banks  failed,  and  at  least 
eighty  country  banks  fell  to  the  ground,  the  Bank 
of  England  itself  being  only  saved  by  the  accident¬ 
al  finding  of  two  million  one-pound  notes  that 
had  been  packed  away  and  lost  sight  of  some  time 
before.  Even  Joseph  John  Gurney,  much  more 
of  a  philanthropist  than  a  banker,  suffered  from 
the  pressure.  “Business  has  been  productive  of 
trial  to  me,”  he  wrote  in  characteristic  way  in  his 
journal,  “  and  has  led  me  to  reflect  on  the  equity 
of  God,  who  measures  out  His  salutary  chastise¬ 
ment,  even  in  this  world,  to  the  rich  as  well  as  the 
poor.  I  can  certainly  testify  that  some  of  the 
greatest  pains  and  most  burdensome  cares  which 
I  have  had  to  endure  have  arisen  out  of  being 
what  is  usually  called  a  ‘  moneyed  man.’  ” 

His  brother,  however,  was  much  more  mixed 
up  in  the  turmoil.  “  Knowing  intimately,  as  he 
did,  the  sufferings  which  awaited  those  who  could 
no  longer  command  credit  or  obtain  supplies  from 
other  quarters,”  said  one  of  Samuel  Gurney’s  old 
friends,  “  his  anxiety  was  felt  more  on  others’  ac¬ 
count  than  his  own” — the  fact  being  that  his  own 

R 


258 


Gurney’s  Prosperity. 


financial  dealings  were  so  sound  that  he  had  no 
fear  for  himself,  and  only  had  to  settle  how  to  make 
most  money  with  most  secondary  advantage  to 
those  he  dealt  with.  “  His  desire,”  it  is  added, 
“was  to  act  fairly  and  justly  to  his  fellow-crea¬ 
tures,  as  well  as  to  himself ;  and  thus  did  he  move 
onward  cautiously,  and  step  by  step,  through  those 
troublous  times,  lest  he  should  lead  any  into  error 
by  his  judgment.  It  was  a  remarkable  sight  to 
witness  him  plunge  day  by  day  into  the  vortex  of 
city  business,  and  return  thence  to  his  own  domes¬ 
tic  hearth  without  any  trace  of  a  mammon-loving 
spirit.” 

We  can  well  believe  that  the  honest  Quaker 
was  reasonably  free  from  the  “mammon-loving 
spirit but  he  knew  well  how  to  seek  and  se¬ 
cure  his  own  advancement,  and  this  he  did  very 
notably,  by  lending  to  many  houses  money  enough 
to  enable  them  to  tide  through  their  difficulties, 
and  so  bringing  to  himself  much  favor  and  much 
new  custom  during  the  following  years.  From 
this  time  forth  he  came  to  be  known  as  a  bankers’ 
banker,  taking  the  place  for  many,  of  the  Bank  of 
England.  Hundreds  of  private  ba^ks  fell  into 
the  way  of  sending  him,  from  time  to  time,  their 
surplus  cash,  finding  that  they  were  as  sure  of  get¬ 
ting  it  back  whenever  they  wanted  it  as  if  they 
had  lodged  it  in  the  Bank  of  England,  and  that  in 
the  mean  while  they  were  getting  higher  interest 
for  it  than  the  Bank  would  have  granted.  “  We  do 
not  feel  the  slightest  dependence  upon  the  Bank 


Gurney’s  Charities. 


259 


of  England,”  said  one  of  the  number,  Mr.  Robert 
Carr  Glynn,  in  1832,  “  nor  do  we  feel  the  slightest 
obligation  to  it  in  any  way.” 

Of  that  sort  was  the  business  by  which  Samuel 
Gurney  grew  rich  himself,  and  helped  others  to  be- 
come  rich.  While  he  was  young  and  vigorous, 
he  made  money-getting  his  one  grand  pursuit.  It 
is  said  of  him  that  when  once  an  elder  friend 
warned  him  against  too  close  attention  to  the 
things  of  this  world,  he  replied  that  he  could  not 
help  himself — he  could  not  live  without  his  busi¬ 
ness.  During  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years  of  his 
life,  however,  he  left  nearly  all  the  management  in 
the  hands  of  others,  and  found  his  occupation  in 
enjoyment  of  his  princely  fortune  and  application 
to  various  charitable  and  philanthropic  undertak¬ 
ings.  Charitable  he  had  been  all  through  his  life. 
“Many  are  the  solid  remembrances  of  the  more 
prominent  features  of  Mr.  Gurney’s  charities,”  says 
his  very  friendly  biographer ;  “  but  besides  those 
deeds  more  generally  known  to  the  public,  there 
were  many  lesser  streams  of  silent  benevolence 
still  flowing  from  the  fountain  of  love  to  God  and 
man,  which  spread  refreshment  around.  To  many 
members  of  his  large  family  his  kindly  aid  was 
given,  and  it  might  be  said  that  not  only  there,  but 
elsewhere,  he  was  wonderfully  gifted  both  with  the 
will  and  with  the  power  to  help.  Besides  his  ef¬ 
ficiency  in  action,  his  very  presence  seemed  to  im¬ 
part  strength,  courage,  and  calm  in  any  emergency, 
while  his  practical  wisdom,  his  clear  and  decisive 


26o 


Gurneys  Charities. 


mind,  and  noble  spirit  of  charity,  led  many  to  bring 
cases  of  difficulty  before  him,  knowing  from  expe¬ 
rience  how  sure  and  effective  was  his  aid.  It  may 
be  truly  said  of  Samuel  Gurney  that  he  loved  to 
do  good  service,  whether  by  advice  or  money — by 
his  sound  judgment  or  well-apportioned  aid.  He 
really  took  trouble  to  serve  his  fellow-creatures, 
and  a  narration  of  his  mere  alms-giving,  exten¬ 
sive  as  it  was,  would  give  a  very  limited  idea  of 
the  good  he  effected  during  the  journey  of  life.” 
Through  the  time  of  his  greatest  wealth  he  is  re¬ 
ported  to  have  spent  ^10,000  a  year  in  charities, 
and  one  year,  it  is  said,  the  amount  exceeded 
^16,000. 

Many  are  the  records  of  his  kindly  disposition, 
shown  in  little  ways  and  great.  “  One  afternoon,” 
says  one  of  his  clerks,  “  as  Mr.  Gurney  was  leav¬ 
ing  Lombard  Street,  I  saw  him  take  up  a  large 
hamper  of  game  to  carry  to  his  carriage.  I  imme¬ 
diately  came  forward  and  took  it  from  him.  He 
looked  pleased,  and  in  his  powerful  and  hearty 

voice  exclaimed,  £  Dost  thou  know  H - ’s  in 

Leadenhall  Market  ?’  I  replied  in  the  affirmative. 

‘  Then  go  there  and  order  thyself  a  right  down 
good  turkey,  and  put  it  down  to  my  account.’  ” 

A  more  important  instance  of  his  generosity  is 
in  the  circumstance  that  when,  on  one  occasion,  a 
forgery  had  been  committed,  to  the  injury  of  his 
Lombard  Street  house,  and  the  culprit  lay  in  pris¬ 
on  with  clear  proof  of  guilt,  Gurney  refused  to 
prosecute  him,  and  so  obtained  his  release.  At 


In  the  Felon's  Dock. 


261 


another  time,  we  are  told,  “  one  of  the  silversmiths 
in  the  city,  and  a  man  of  high  esteem  for  his  up¬ 
rightness,  was  accused  of  forgery.  The  excite¬ 
ment  as  to  the  probable  result  of  this  inquiry  was 
intense,  and  the  opinions  of  men  differed  widely. 
On. the  morning  of  the  decisive  day,”  says  the 
merchant  who  tells  the  story,  “  I  chanced  to  hear 
that  my  friend  Gurney  was  prepared  to  stand  by 
the  prisoner  in  the  dock.  I  immediately  proceed¬ 
ed  to  Lombard  Street,  where  I  found  him  occu¬ 
pied  with  the  vast  interests  of  his  business,  and 
asked  him  hastily  whether  common  report  were 
true.  Upon  which  he  said,  ‘After  a  most  anxious 
investigation  of  the  matter,  I  am  firmly  convinced 
of  that  man’s  innocence.  I  deem  it  my  duty  to 
express  this  conviction  publicly,  and  will  join  him 
in  the  felon’s  dock.’  And  most  assuredly  he 
went ;  nor  could  any  one  easily  forget  the  intense 
sensation  produced  in  the  crowd  of  spectators 
when,  on  the  prisoner  being  conducted  to  his 
place,  the  stately  figure  of  Samuel  Gurney  present¬ 
ed  itself  to  the  public  gaze  by  the  side  of  the  inno¬ 
cent  silversmith.” 

In  mitigation  of  the  laws  regarding  forgery,  in 
company  with  his  brother-in-law,  Thomas  Foxwell 
Buxton,  Samuel  Gurney  first  showed  himself  to  the 
world  as  a  philanthropist.  He  also  took  a  lively 
interest  in  all  plans  for  improving  and  increasing 
refuges  and  reformatories.  He  was  for  many  years, 
after  the  death  of  William  Allen,  treasurer  to  the 
British  and  Foreign  School  Society,  and  to  other 


262 


The  Friend  of  All. 


like  institutions  he  was  always  a  good  friend.  Vis¬ 
iting  Ireland  in  1849,  he  astonished  the  inhabitants 
by  the  liberality  with  which  he  drained  his  purse  to 
relieve  them,  as  far  as  he  could,  amid  their  suffer¬ 
ings  from  the  potato  famine.  At  Ballina  he  found 
the  town  so  full  of  paupers  that  there  were  none 
able  to  pay  poor-rates,  and  the  work-house  was 
consequently  bankrupt.  “  I  found  an  execution 
put  into  it,”  he  said  in  one  of  his  letters,  “  and  all 
the  stock  furniture  is  to  be  sold  off  this  week,  when 
the  poor  will  have  to  lie  on  straw,  and  the  guard¬ 
ians  must  feed  them  as  well  as  they  can.”  He 
bought  up  the  whole  of  the  furniture  for  ^200,  in 
order  that,  being  his  property,  it  might  be  saved 
from  the  creditors. 

In  1848  Gurney  gave  ;£  1000  to  the  Government 
of  Liberia,  and  he  always  took  great  interest  in  the 
prosperity  of  the  little  colony  of  freed  slaves.  Nor 
was  he,  like  some  anti-slavery  worthies,  careful 
only  for  the  freedom  of  the  blacks.  In  1852  he 
sent  a  petition  to  the  King  of  Prussia  on  behalf  of 
his  dissenting  subjects,  praying  that  full  religious 
liberty  might  be  accorded  them.  The  King  an¬ 
swered  that  he  did  not  mean  to  do  any  thing  that 
could  distress  “  his  good  friend  Gurney.” 

Gurney  was  not  a  bigot.  Some  one  having 
written  to  him,  in  1855,  complaining  of  the  way  in 
which  Fox  and  Penn  had  been  spoken  of  by  Lord 
Macaulay  in  his  History  of  England ,  he  answered 
thus :  “  It  is  a  little  mortifying  that  Macaulay 
should  so  have  held  up  our  honorable  predeces- 


Samuel  Gurneys  Death. 


2  63 


sors  ;  not  that  they  were  perfect,  or  were  ever  held 
up  as  such,  as  far  as  I  know ;  but  they  were  ex¬ 
traordinary  men,  wonderfully  elucidating  and  main¬ 
taining  the  truth.  I  am  not  prepared,  however,  to 
say  that  Fox  was  clear  of  eccentricities,  and  that  at 
times  he  was  not,  to  a  certain  extent,  under  such 
influence  on  his  conduct ;  but,  taking  him  for  all 
in  all,  he  was  wonderfully  gifted  and  enlightened. 
It  will  probably  be  considered  by  Friends  whether 
there  should  be  an  answer  somewhat  official  to 
these  attacks  on  our  two  worthies.  I  rather  lean 
to  it,  although  it  would  be  impossible  to  reach 
wherever  Macaulay’s  book  may  go;  yet,  if  well 
done,  it  might  have  a  beneficial  effect  upon  the  pub¬ 
lic  mind,  and  upon  our  young  people.  There  is,  how¬ 
ever,  one  consolation.  ‘The  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus’ 
— the  truth  as  maintained  by  Friends — is  unchange¬ 
able,  and  remains  the  same,  however  feeble,  or 
even  faulty,  its  supporters  may  have  been  and  are.” 

That  letter  was  written  from  Nice,  whither 
Samuel  Gurney  had  gone  after  the  death  of  his 
wife,  hoping  to  improve  the  health  that  had  been 
greatly  shattered  by  his  loss,  and  the  anxiety  that 
preceded  it.  But  in  that  he  was  mistaken.  Grow¬ 
ing  worse  in  the  spring  of  1856,  he  hurried  home¬ 
ward,  hoping  to  end  his  days  in  his  own  country, 
and  among  his  own  kindred.  He  reached  Paris, 
but  could  go  no  farther.  There  he  died,  on  the 
5th  of  June,  1856,  seventy  years  old,  and  one  of 
the  richest  and  most  envied  men  in  Europe. 

The  house  of  Overend,  Gurney,  &  Company, 


264  Over  end,  Gurney ,  6°  Company. 

which  he  made  so  famous,  lasted  only  ten  years 
longer.  On  Samuel  Gurney’s  retirement,  Mr. 
David  Barclay  Chapman  became  the  chief  mana¬ 
ger  of  the  business.  He  retired  in  turn,  late  in 
1857,  and  then  the  direction  fell  into  less  skillful 
hands.  The  establishment  became  a  Limited  Lia¬ 
bility  Company  in  August,  1865,  and  failed  in 
May,  1866. 


The  Tower  of  London. 


George  Peabody. 


267 


XIII. 

GEORGE  PEABODY. 

have  already  seen  how  enterprising  men 
have  come  from  various  parts  of  England 
and  from  foreign  lands  to  settle  in  our  great  me- 
troplis,  and  to  win  fame  and  fortune  for  them¬ 
selves  and  to  augment  the  wealth  and  enterprise 
of  their  adopted  house,  as  famous  London  mer¬ 
chants.  Our  last  hero  shall  be  one,  surpassed  in 
worth  and  wisdom  by  none  of  his  forerunners,  who 
was  neither  an  Englishman  nor  a  foreigner,  one 
of  the  famous  race  of  colonists,  who,  having  Eng¬ 
land  for  their  mother-country,  have  established  a 
greater  England  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 
George  Peabody  is  only  the  most  notable  of  a 
crowd  of  great  Americans,  who,  enriching  them¬ 
selves  and  the  land  of  their  birth,  have  done  no 
less  service  to  the  nation  from  which  their  own 
nation  is  descended. 

The  Peabody  family  seems  to  be  of  Leicester¬ 
shire  origin,  but  it  was  from  Saint  Alban’s,  in  Hert¬ 
fordshire,  that  Francis  Peabody  went,  in  1635,  to 
be  one  of  the  first  settlers  in  New  England.  He 
was  then  twenty-one,  and  he  lived  sixty-three  years 
in  his  new  home.  Six  sons  and  eight  daughters 
were  born  to  him,  and  the  family  multiplied  great¬ 
ly  in  succeeding  generations  ;  Danvers,  in  Massa- 


268  George  Peabody s  Schooling . 

chusetts,  being  its  head-quarters.  There  George 
Peabody,  the  great  -  great  -  great  -  grandson  of  old 
Francis,  the  patriarch,  was  born  on  the  18th  of 
February,  1795.  His  parents  were  not  rich,  and 
all  the  education  possible  to  him  was  obtained  in 
the  district  school  of  his  native  town,  still  little 
more  than  a  village.  Even  that  came  to  an  end 
when  he  was  eleven  years  old.  In  1806  he  be¬ 
came  a  grocer’s  boy  in  Danvers,  and  he  was  so 
employed  for  four  or  five  years.  At  sixteen  he 
went  to  be  clerk  to  his  elder  brother,  who  had 
started  a  dry-goods  store  at  Newburyport,  in  the 
north-eastern  corner  of  Massachusetts  ;  but  only  a 
few  months  afterward  a  great  fire  broke  out  in  the 
town,  half  destroying  it,  and  ruining  the  enterprise 
of  the  brothers.  Young  Peabody  then  went  to 
Georgetown,  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  where  an 
uncle  offered  him  a  post  in  a  dry-goods  business, 
which  he  also  had  just  started. 

That  was  in  the  spring  of  1812.  The  War  of 
1812  was  then  breaking  out,  and  the  lad  became 
a  volunteer  in  a  company  of  artillery.  He  was 
stationed  for  a  few  months  at  Fort  Warburton,  but 
no  active  work  could  be  found  for  him  or  his  com¬ 
rades,  and  he  soon  went  back  to  his  uncle’s  store. 
The  uncle  being  a  poor  man,  and  perhaps  not  a 
very  clever  one,  the  store  was  not  successful,  and 
after  two  years’  occupation  in  it,  George  Peabody 
left  to  become  manager  of  another  dry-goods  busi¬ 
ness,  established  by  a  rich  merchant  of  the  Dis¬ 
trict  of  Columbia,  named  Elisha  Riggs.  Elisha 


His  Progress  in  America.  269 

Riggs’s  friends  blamed  him  for  confiding  so  much 
to  a  youth  of  only  nineteen ;  but  his  wisdom  was 
soon  proved.  The  business  was  very  successful. 
In  1815  it  was  transferred  to  Baltimore,  to  ber  car¬ 
ried  on  in  a  larger  way  by  the  new  firm  of  Riggs 
&  Peabody,  which  afterward,  on  the  retirement  of 
the  senior  partner  in  1829,  was  changed  to  Pea¬ 
body,  Riggs,  &  Company. 

For  more  than  twenty  years  George  Peabody 
lived  in  Baltimore,  working  hard  at  his  trade, 
which  consisted  chiefly  in  the  importation  of  man¬ 
ufactured  goods  from  Europe  and  their  sale  in 
America,  but  to  which,  almost  from  the  first,  an  ir¬ 
regular  sort  of  banking  business  was  added.  In 
1822  branch  businesses  were  opened  in  Pennsyl¬ 
vania  and  New  York,  all  being  under  the  close  su¬ 
perintendence  of  Peabody.  He  was  also  occa¬ 
sionally  employed  in  financial  negotiations  for  the 
State  of  Maryland,  and  these  duties,  as  well  as  his 
own  trade,  brought  him  often  on  short  visits  to 
England  during  the  ten  years  following  upon 
1827.  On  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  he  won  the 
respect  of  all  with  whom  he  came  in  contact  by 
“a  judgment  quick  and  cautious,  clear  and  sound, 
a  decided  purpose,  a  firm  will,  energetic  and  per¬ 
severing  industry,  punctuality  and  fidelity  in  every 
engagement,  justice  and  honor  controlling  every 
transaction,  and  courtesy — that  true  courtesy  which 
springs  from  genuine  kindness — presiding  over  all 
the  intercourse  of  life.” 

In  1836  Peabody  resolved  to  leave  the  business 


270 


Peabody  in  London. 


which  he  had  already  made  famous  in  other  lands, 
and  to  extend  it  mightily  by  opening  an  establish¬ 
ment,  under  his  own  management,  in  London. 
Since  February,  1837,  London  has  been  his  adopt¬ 
ed  home,  and  fortune,  favoring  him  amid  the  mis¬ 
fortunes  of  others,  came  with  him.  The  summer 
of  1837  was  a  time  of  great  commercial  crisis  in 
America  and  among  English  merchants  whose 
chief  trade  was  with  the  American  continent. 
Three-quarters  of  all  the  banks  in  the  United 
States  fell,  one  after  another,  with  a  tremendous 
crash,  and  thousands  of  traders,  hitherto  prosper¬ 
ous,  were  ruined  by  the  catastrophe.  “  That  great 
‘sympathetic  nerve  of  the  commercial  world,  cred¬ 
it, ’’  said  George  Peabody’s  friend,  Edward  Ever¬ 
ett,  the  great  author,  orator,  and  diplomatist,  twenty 
years  afterward,  “  as  far  as  the  United  States  were 
concerned,  was  for  the  time  paralyzed.  At  that 
moment  Mr.  Peabody  not  only  stood  firm  himself, 
but  was  the  cause  of  firmness  in  others.  There 
were  not  at  that  time,  probably,  half  a  dozen  other 
men  in  Europe  who,  upon  the  subject  of  American 
securities,  would  have  been  listened  to  for  a  mo¬ 
ment  in  the  parlor  of  the  Bank  of  England.  But 
his  judgment  commanded  respect ;  his  integrity 
won  back  the  reliance  which  men  had  been  accus¬ 
tomed  to  place  in  American  securities.  The  re¬ 
proach  in  which  they  were  all  involved  was  gradu¬ 
ally  wiped  away  from  those  of  a  substantial  char¬ 
acter  ;  and  if,  on  this  solid  basis  of  unsuspected 
good  faith,  he  reared  his  own  prosperity,  let  it  be 


The  Cause  of  his  Success. 


271 


remembered  that  at  the  same  time  he  retrieved  the 
credit  of  the  State  of  Maryland,  of  which  he  was 
agent — performing  the  miracle  by  which  the  word 
of  an  honest  man  turns  paper  into  gold.” 

That  excellent  beginning  of  his  career  in  Lon¬ 
don  placed  Peabody  in  the  foremost  rank  of  mer¬ 
chant  princes.  In  London  and  in  all  parts  of  Eng¬ 
land  he  bought  British  manufactures  for  shipment 
to  the  United  States,  and  the  ships  came  back 
freighted  with  every  kind  of  American  produce  for 
sale  in  England.  To  that  lucrative  occupation, 
however,  was  added  one  far  more  lucrative.  The 
merchants  and  manufacturers  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic,  who  transmitted  their  goods  through  him, 
sometimes  procured  from  him  advances  on  account 
of  the  goods  in  his  possession  long  before  they  were 
sold.  At  other  times  they  found  it  convenient  to 
leave  large  sums  in  his  hands  long  after  the  goods 
were  disposed  of,  knowing  that  they  could  draw 
whenever  they  needed,  and  that  in  the  mean  while 
their  money  was  being  so  profitably  invested  that 
they  were  certain  of  a  proper  interest  for  their 
loans.  Thus  he  became  a  great  banker  as  well 
as  a  great  merchant,  and,  ultimately,  much  more 
of  a  banker  than  a  merchant. 

From  the  year  1843  especially,  when  he  retired 
from  the  house  of  Peabody,  Riggs,  &  Company, 
and  founded  the  much  greater  house  of  George 
Peabody  &  Company,  he  ran  a  race  with  other 
great  monetary  traders  like  Samuel  Gurney,  the 
Rothschilds,  and  the  Barings.  The  Barings,  hav- 


272  Peabody  as  a  Banker. 

ing  most  to  do  with  American  commerce,  were 
his  chief  rivals  ;  and  here  the  friendly  rivalry  was 
carried  on  with  a  native  of  his  own  country.  The 
working  head  of  the  house  of  Baring  at  this  time 
was  Joshua  Bates,  who  was  born  at  Weymouth, 
near  Boston,  in  1788.  In  1825,  having  previously 
had  many  dealings  with  the  family,  he  came  to 
London  to  become  a  member  of  the  famous  estab¬ 
lishment,  and  from  1828  till  the  time  of  his  death 
in  1864  he  was  its  principal  manager.  For  many 
years  he  was  in  intimate  friendship  with  Coleridge, 
and  during  that  period  Bates’s  drawing-room  was 
a  favorite  haunt  of  the  admirers  of  the  great  think¬ 
er  and  great  talker.  Another  of  Joshua  Bates’s 
friends  was  Prince  Louis  Napoleon.  The  intima¬ 
cy  which  existed  before  1848  between  the  wealthy 
merchant  and  the  eccentric  refugee  continued 
without  hinderance,  it  is  said,  after  the  refugee  had 
become  Emperor  of  the  French.  Bates  was  of  gen¬ 
erous  disposition,  and,  among  other  benefactions, 
gave  more  than  ,£20,000  to  found  and  maintain 
the  Free  Library  of  Boston. 

Much  greater  and  wider  have  been  the  philan¬ 
thropies  of  George  Peabody.  From  the  commence¬ 
ment  of  his  wealth-winning,  he  put  his  riches  and 
the  influence  that  came  with  them  to  good  use. 
Of  his  trading  establishment,  he  said  :  “  I  have 
endeavored,  in  the  constitution  of  its  members 
and  the  character  of  its  business,  to  make  it  an 
American  house,  and  to  give  it  an  American  at¬ 
mosphere,  to  furnish  it  with  American  journals, 


An  A?iglo- American. 


273 


to  make  it  a  centre  of  American  news,  and  an 
agreeable  place  for  my  American  friends  visit¬ 
ing  London.”  An  American  himself,  who  had 
become  a  citizen  of  London,  he  did  his  utmost  to 
strengthen  the  bonds  of  friendship  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britian.  During  many 
years,  until  it  was  deemed  more  suitable  that  the 
whole  body  of  American  residents  in  London 
should  unite  in  the  work,  he  celebrated  the  fa¬ 
mous  Fourth  of  July  with  a  sumptuous  dinner,  at 
which  the  leading  men  of  both  countries  were  in¬ 
vited  to  join  in  the  fostering  of  international  friend¬ 
ship.  To  him  were  due  the  principal  arrangements 
for  organizing  and  making  conspicuous  the  won¬ 
derful  display  of  American  manufactures  at  the 
great  Exhibition  of  1851,  and  an  entertainment 
given  by  him  at  the  London  Coffee-house,  on  the 
27th  of  October  in  that  year,  was  everywhere  rec¬ 
ognized  at  the  time  as  an  unparalleled  occasion 
for  the  interchange  of  national  courtesies  and  the 
strengthening  of  national  good-will. 

These  were  matters  which,  by  reason  of  their 
practical  results,  were  not  to  be  thought  lightly 
of.  But  the  daily  influences  of  his  honest  life 
and  stupendous  work  were  yet  more  momentous. 
So,  too,  the  private  charities  which  preceded  and 
attended  his  great  acts  of  public  benevolence 
have  been  of  no  mean  importance.  Acquiring 
great  wealth,  he  has  always  used  it  generously. 

From  the  first  he  showed  himself  a  good  friend 
to  his  native  village,  since  grown  into  a  prosperous 

S 


274  His  Charities  in  America. 

town.  Once,  when  it  was  grievously  injured  by 
fire,  he  helped  to  rebuild  it,  and  over  and  over  again 
he  furnished  fresh  tokens  of  his  generous  remem¬ 
brance  of  it.  In  1852,  on  the  occasion  of  a  public 
celebration,  he  sent  from  London  a  letter,  asking 
that  he  might  not  be  forgotten  in  the  rejoicings  of 
his  friends,  and  inclosing  a  sentiment  which  was 
not  to  be  opened  until  the  proper  time  for  toast¬ 
giving  at  the  dinner.  The  sentiment  was  :  “  Edu¬ 
cation,  a  debt  due  from  present  to  future  genera¬ 
tions;’’  and  as  his  share  in  payment  of  the  debt, 
he  placed  in  the  envelope  a  draft  for  £4000,  to 
be  applied  to  “  the  promotion  of  knowledge  and 
morality  in  Danvers.”  Out  of  that  gift  grew  the 
Peabody  Institute,  to  which  he  afterward  sub¬ 
scribed  upward  of  £5000  more. 

In  1856  he  went  to  Danvers,  to  revisit  the 
scenes  of  his  childhood,  and  to  receive  the  honors 
which  his  fellow-townsmen  were  eager  to  offer. 
“  Though  Providence,”  he  then  said,  “  has  grant¬ 
ed  me  an  unvaried  and  unusual  success  in  the 
pursuit  of  fortune  in  other  lands,  I  am  still  in 
heart  the  humble  boy  who  left  yonder  unpretend¬ 
ing  dwelling.  There  is  not  a  youth  within  the 
sound  of  my  voice  whose  early  opportunities  and 
advantages  are  not  very  much  greater  than  were 
my  own,  and  I  have  since  achieved  nothing  that  is 
impossible  to  the  most  humble  boy  among  you.” 

Another  famous  instance  of  George  Peabody’s 
generosity  was  in  a  gift  of  ,£100,000  to  Baltimore, 
for  the  establishment  of  an  Educational  Institute, 


The  Peabody  Almshouses. 


275 


which  should  also  contain  a  Free  Library,  an 
Academy  of  Music,  and  a  Gallery  of  Art.  In 
18 66  he  gave  ^30,000  to  the  Harvard  University. 
A  yet  greater  instance  signalized  his  retirement 
from  the  commercial  world  of  London  in  1862. 
He  then  placed  in  the  hands  of  trustees  ^150,000, 
to  be  so  expended  as  “  to  ameliorate  the  condition 
of  the  poor  and  needy  of  this  great  metropolis,  and 
to  promote  their  comfort  and  happiness  and  sug¬ 
gested  that  the  best  way  of  carrying  out  his  inten¬ 
tions  would  be  “  to  apply  the  fund,  or  a  portion  of 
it,  in  the  construction  of  such  improved  dwellings 
for  the  poor  as  may  combine,  in  the  utmost  possi¬ 
ble  degree,  the  essentials  of  healthfulness,  comfort, 
social  enjoyment,  and  economy.”  That  suggestion 
being  adopted,  commodious  buildings  have  been 
set  up,  or  are  still  being  erected,  at  Spitalfields 
and  at  Chelsea,  with  accommodations  for  about 
two  hundred  persons  in  each ;  at  Bermondsey, 
large  enough  for  about  four  hundred ;  at  Isling¬ 
ton,  adapted  for  six  hundred  and  fifty ;  at  Shad- 
well,  for  a  yet  larger  number  of  inmates.  In  con¬ 
tinuance  of  this  good  work,  the  benefactor  applied 
a  further  sum  of  ^100,000  in  1 866,  and  a  second 
sum  of  like  amount  on  the  5th  of  December,  1868. 

The  modest,  manly  letter  to  the  trustees  announc¬ 
ing  this  fresh  act  of  munificence,  is  worth  quoting 
entire  : 

“My  Lord  and  Gentlemen, — I  beg  to  ac¬ 
quaint  you,  who  have  so  kindly  undertaken  the 


276  A  Fresh  Act  of  Generosity. 

management  of  the  fund  set  apart  under  my  sec¬ 
ond  deed  of  gift  of  the  19th  of  April,  1866,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  poor  of  London  and  its  vicinity, 
that,  in  pursuance  of  an  intention  which  I  have 
entertained  since  the  creation  of  that  fund,  I  am 
desirous  now  of  adding  to  it  a  further  sum  of 
^100,000. 

“  In  contemplation  of  this,  I  purchased,  about 

» 

three  years  ago,  a  tract  of  freehold  building  land, 
of  about  fifteen  acres  in  extent,  at  Brixton,  near 
the  City  of  London  School,  easily  accessible,  and 
within  a  few  minutes’  walk  of  frequent  trains  to 
and  from  London.  This  land  has  increased  in 
value,  and  can  now  be  let,  on  building  leases  of 
eighty  years,  at  rents  producing  about  8  per  cent, 
per  annum  on  the  cost,  which  is  ,£16,285  \^s.  3d. 
This  land  I  propose  to  convey  to  you  with  the 
same  powers  as  are  conferred  by  the  deed  over 
the  other  property  of  this  trust,  and  with  discre¬ 
tion  to  you  either  to  deal  with  it  as  a  source  of 
income  by  letting  it,  or  any  portion  of  it,  on  lease  ; 
or,  should  you  deem  it  expedient,  to  retain  it  in 
your  own  hands  as  sites  for  dwellings  to  be  erect¬ 
ed  by  the  trust. 

“Pursuant  to  my  letter  of  the  29th  of  January, 
1866, 1  transferred  to  you,  subject  to  a  contingen¬ 
cy  therein  explained,  5000  shares  in  the  Hudson’s 
Bay  Company,  which  accordingly  stand  in  your 
names,  together  with  642  additional  shares  pur¬ 
chased  by  the  re-investment  of  the  accruing  in¬ 
come  of  the  previous  5000.  These  5642  shares  I 


Princely  Benevole?ice. 


277 


have  since  redeemed,  conformably  to. the  deed  of 
the  19th  of  April,  1866,  by  the  payment  of  £100, 000 
on  the  1st  of  February  last.  I  have  now  to  acquaint 
you  that  it  is  my  intention,  so  soon  as  the  necessary 
deeds  can  be  prepared,  to  hand  the  shares  over  to 
you,  to  be  retained  or  dealt  with  according  to  your 
best  judgment  and  discretion.  The  price  of  these 
shares  shall  be  fixed  on  the  17th  inst.  by  the  Stock 
Exchange  sales  on  that  day,  when  I  will  hand  to 
you  a  check  for  the  balance,  to  make  the  gift  a 
cash  value  of  ,£109,000.  This  amount  will  in¬ 
crease  my  former  donation  of  the  second  trust 
to  £"200,000,  and,  including  my  gift  under  the 
first  trust  in  March,  1862,  of  £150,000,  a  total  of 
£350,000. 

“  I  trust  you  will  see  manifested  in  this  further 
donation  an  expression  of  my  entire  satisfaction 
with  the  manner  in  which  you  have  conducted  the 
affairs  of  the  trusts. 

“  I  am,  with  great  respect,  your  humble  servant, 

“  George  Peabody.” 

It  is  not  strange  that  a  man  so  generous  as  this 
should  be  publicly  thanked  for  his  benefactions  by 
the  United  States  Congress  and  the  Queen  of  Eng¬ 
land,  or  that  spontaneous  praises  of  him  should 
rise  from  the  hearts  of  millions  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic,  to  find  utterance  sometimes  in  verses 
like  the  following  : 

“  We  mourned  the  old  chivalric  times, 

Their  virtues,  with  their  glories,  dead — 


278 


A  Modern  Hero. 


Life  stricken  wholly  from  romance — 

‘  And  what  is  left  to  us  ?’  we  said. 

Up  through  the  land  the  murmur  rose: 

‘  Oh  for  the  days  that  are  no  more, 

When  love  of  God  wrought  love  of  man, 

And  all  were  human  to  the  core !  „ 

“  ‘  The  great  Arthurian  days  we  mourn, 

And  all  the  lapsing  years  that  wrought 
Change  after  change,  yet  evermore 

Some  varying  phase  of  splendor  caught ; 
Still  noble  deeds,  still  gentle  lives, 

Till  every  knightly  heart  grew  cold, 

And  valor’s  sunset-radiance  lit 
The  tourney  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold. 

“  ‘  The  poetry  of  earth  is  dead  :* 

What  lesser  griefs  should  we  bemoan, 

With  Science  in  the  place  of  Faith, 

With  quicken’d  brains  and  hearts  of  stone  ? 
Our  noblest  triumphs  mock  our  skill, 

We  link  the  Continents  in  vain — 

It  only  tends  to  sordid  ends, 

And  whets  the  appetite  for  gain.’ 

“  So  from  our  lips  remonstrance  fell, 

When  through  the  land  a  rumor  went, 

‘  The  old  heroic  fire  revives — - 
Its  pulsing  fervor  is  not  spent ! 

The  record  of  the  glowing  past 

Shows  in  its  dim  and  doubtful  page 
No  deed  like  that  which  greets  the  eyes 
Of  this  debased,  prosaic  age. 

“  ‘  For  lo  !  a  Queen  of  sovereign  sway,  * 

Of  zoneless  empire,  quits  her  throne, 
Stooping  to  welcome  one  who  comes 
A  stranger,  nameless  and  unknown  : 

No  comely  youth  in  knightly  guise 
Shining  at  ruffled  beauty’s  knees — 


*  “  The  poetry  of  earth  is  never  dead.” — Keats. 


In  Praise  of  Peabody. 


279 


A  silver’d  head,  a  homely  form — 

No  more  the  queenly  woman  sees. 

“No  more ;  but  in  her  heart  there  glows 
The  memory  of  a  noble  deed, 

Of  succor  to  her  people  lent, 

Of  princely  aid  in  sorest  need. 

And  gracious  is  her  tearful  smile 

As  forth  she  thrusts  a  trembling  hand, 

And  bids  him  in  her  name  receive 
The  homage  of  her  grateful  land.’ 

“  Homage  to  Goodness  !  Queenly  meed 
Of  generous  thanks  to  simple  Worth  ! 

Thus  does  the  old  chivalric  soul 
Survive  in  us  of  later  birth ; 

Nor  doubt  its  promptings  in  the  heart 
Of  him — his  nation’s  noblest  son — 

The  largesse  of  whose  liberal  hand 
A  sovereign’s  thanks  has  rightly  won. 

“  Never  did  truer  beauty  clothe 

The  radiant  limbs  of  courtly  knight, 

Than  clothes  that  brow  serenely  smooth, 
And  fills  those  eyes  with  gentle  light. 

To  latest  times  that  homely  form, 

And  that  familiar,  kindly  face, 

The  holier  memories  of  men 
Will  with  a  tender  beauty  grace. 

“  Where’er  that  honored  name  is  heard 
The  tears  will  gleam  in  woman’s  eyes ; 

The  hearts  of  men  will  stir  and  creep, 

And  blessings  to  their  lips  will  rise. 

Though  Science  joined  the  sunder’d  worlds, 
It  needed  yet  what  he  has  done — • 

A  noble  action,  meekly  wrought, 

Has  knit  the  hearts  of  both  in  one. 

“  Yes,  and  as,  far  above  the  glow, 

When  all  the  West  is  fierce  with  flame, 


280 


In  Praise  of  Peabody . 


A  faint  star  brightens  to  the  night, 

Deep’ning  about  it — so  his  fame, 

Surviving  all  the  transient  bloom 
That  makes  the  passing  present  bright, 

Will  shine,  and  still  resplendent  shine, 

An  orb  of  ever-gathering  light.” 

[From  Lo7idon  Society ,  October,  1 866. J 


Queen  Victoria,  from  a  Picture  presented  to  George  Peabody,  Esq. 


George  Peabody  has  earned  all  that  honor  by 
reason  of  his  princely  benefactions  ;  but  there  has 


London  the  Emporium  of  the  World.  28 1 

been  no  less  benefaction  in  his  honest  pursuit  of 
commerce,  during  more  than  twenty  years  in  Bal¬ 
timore,  and  five-and-twenty  years  in  London. 
Every  honest  merchant  is  a  benefactor,  as  there¬ 
by  he  aids  the  progress  of  all  classes  of  society  in 
wealth  and  civilization. 

The  sum  of  the  benefactions  of  the  merchants 
of  London  is  to  be  seen  in  its  present  prosperity. 
The  prophecy  of  Pope  has  been  more  than  ful¬ 
filled  : 

“  The  time  shall  come,  when,  free  as  sea  or  wind, 
Unbounded  Thames  shall  flow  for  all  mankind ; 
Whole  nations  enter  at  each  swelling  tide, 

And  seas  but  join  the  regions  they  divide.” 

London  is  now  the  great  emporium  of  the 
world.  In  it  are  assembled  traders  of  every  race, 
who  deal  in  the  produce  of  every  quarter  of  the 
globe.  About  30,000  ships  enter  it  each  year, 
bearing  more  than  6,000,000  tons  of  cargo,  valued 
at  considerably  more  than  ^30,000,000 ;  and  the 
same  ships  take  back  to  the  lands  from  which  they 
came  an  equal  quantity  of  goods  of  almost  greater 
value.  Chief  among  its  annual  imports  are  about 
400,000  oxen,  sheep,  and  cows ;  more  than 3,000,000 
quarters  of  corn ;  300,000  tons  of  sugar  ;  more 
than  80,000,000  pounds  of  tea,  and  more  than 
70,000,000  pounds  of  coffee ;  about  16,000,000  gal¬ 
lons  of  wines  and  spirits,  and  more  than  35,000,000 
pounds  of  tobacco  ;  an  immeasurable  store  of  all 
sorts  of  miscellaneous  articles  of  food,  including 


282 


The  Trade  of  London . 


10,000,000  pounds  of  pepper  alone;  a  supply,  no 
less  various  and  extensive,  of  dyes,  drugs,  and  the 
like  ;  more  than  80,000,000  pounds  of  wool ;  and 
more  than  30,000  tons  of  metal.  In  return  for 
these  imports,  it  exports  each  year  about  ,£9,000,000 
worth  of  textile  fabric,  cotton,  woollen,  linen,  and 
silk,  besides  about  ^1,500,000  worth  of  made-up 
clothing,  and  leather  of  nearly  the  same  value  ; 
nearly  £6, 000,000  worth  of  rough  metals,  and  fin¬ 
ished  machinery  to  be  sold  for  about  ^9,000,000. 
In  other  words,  though  robbed  of  the  East  India 
monopoly,  it  still  has  more  than  three-quarters  of 
the  stupendous  trade  that  has  grown  up  with  India, 
receiving  nearly  all  its  produce,  with  the  exception 
of  cotton,  which  goes  direct  to  Liverpool  or  Glas¬ 
gow.  It  receives  nearly  seven-eighths  of  the  coffee 
sent  from  Ceylon,  and  from  China  it  imports  near¬ 
ly  all  the  tea  sent  to  this  country,  with  about  a 
third  of  its  silk.  Australia  sends  to  London  more 
than  half  of  the  wool  grown  for  English  use  ;  and 
to  it  come  about  a  fifth  of  the  corn,  and  a  sixth  of 
the  wool,  nearly  half  of  the  tobacco,  and  quite  half 
of  the  sugar  dispatched  to  Great  Britain  from  the 
West  Indies  and  the  continent  of  America.  More¬ 
over,  it  absorbs  more  than*  half  of  the  English 
trade  with  Europe,  receiving  about  a  quarter  of 
the  grain,  about  half  of  the  provisions,  about  two- 
thirds  of  the  wines  and  spirits,  and  nearly  all  the 
live  cattle,  with  a  goodly  share  of  all  the  other 
commodities  that  are  brought  thence  for  sale 
among  us.  In  return  for  these  imports,  it  exports 


The  Royal  Exchange,  London. 


The  Docks  of  London. 


285 


a  sixth  of  the  textile  fabrics,  cotton,  woollen,  linen, 
and  silk  that  are  manufactured  in  England  for  for¬ 
eign  or  colonial  use,  a  quarter  of  the  wrought  and 
unwrought  metals,  and  a  third  of  the  finished  ma¬ 
chinery,  about  half  of  the  leather,  and  more  than 
half  of  the  provisions  and  miscellaneous  articles 
which  are  sent  abroad  each  year. 

Some  notion  of  the  extent  of  London  commerce 
may  be  gathered  from  the  nature  of  the  docks 
which  it  employs.  In  former  times  the  old-fash¬ 
ioned  quays  and  wharves  of  the  Thames  served 
for  all  the  loading  and  unloading  that  had  to  be 
done.  But  near  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cen¬ 
tury  these  wharves  and  quays  began  to  be  quite 
insufficient  for  the  growing  wants  of  commerce. 
At  last,  in  1796,  a  plan  was  started  by  the  West 
India  merchants  for  the  construction  of  a  dock 
and  adjacent  warehouses  adapted  to  the  trade  in 
which  they  were  engaged.  The  projected  capital 
of  ,£800,000  was  subscribed  in  a  couple  of  days ; 
and  after  five  years  spent  in  obtaining  the  sanc¬ 
tion  of  Parliament,  the  West  India  Docks  were 
begun  in  1800,  and  opened  for  business  in  1802. 
In  1801  the  London  Docks  were  commenced,  to 
be  finished  in  1805,  at  a  cost  of  £ 2,000,000. 
They  were  100  acres  in  extent,  with  room  for  500 
ships  at  a  time,  and  with  warehouses  large  enough 
to  hold  230,000  tons  of  the  wine,  brandy,  tobacco, 
rice,  and  miscellaneous  articles  for  which  they 
were  specially  designed.  The  East  India  Docks 
were  sanctioned  in  1803,  “  for  the  accommodation 


286 


The  Docks  of  London . 


of  the  East  India  shipping  of  the  port  of  London.” 
In  1838  they  were  united  with  the  West  India 
Docks,  the  two  having  a  surface  of  87  acres,  with 
room  for  624  vessels,  and  warehouses  able  to  con¬ 
tain  about  200,000  tons  of  goods.  On  one  occa¬ 
sion  there  was  lodged  in  them  £ 20,000,000  worth 
of  colonial  produce,  comprising  148,563  casks  of 
sugar,  70,895  barrels  and  33,648  bags  of  coffee, 
35,158  pipes  of  rum  and  Madeira,  14,000  logs  of 
mahogany,  and  21,000  tons  of  logwood.  These 
three  establishments  had,  for  some  twenty  years, 
a  monopoly  in  the  dock  business  of  London.  In 
1823  the  Saint  Katherine’s  Docks  were  instituted 
“  on  the  principle  of  free  competition  in  trade,  and 
without  any  exclusive  privileges  and  immunities,” 
as  it  was  declared  in  the  Act  of  Parliament  per¬ 
mitting  them.  They  were  constructed  by  Telford 
in  more  imposing  shape  than  any  of  the  others, 
on  as  much  space  as  could  be  obtained  between 
the  London  Docks  and  the  Tower.  That  space 
measured  23  acres,  and  was  obtained  by  the  dem¬ 
olition  of  1250  houses,  and  the  turning  out  of  11,300 
residents  in  them,  at  a  cost  of  about  £ 2,000,000  ; 
but  if  was  soon  found  to  be  wholly  inadequate  to 
the  wants  of  the  city.  Therefore,  in  1850,  the 
Victoria  Docks  were  set  up,  with  all  the  later  ap¬ 
pliances  of  engineering  and  mechanical  progress. 
In  i860  the  Victoria  Docks  gave  shelter  to  2682 
ships,  with  a  burden  of  850,327  tons;  the' East 
and  West  India  Docks  to  1200  ships,  carrying 
498,366  tons;  the  London  Docks  to  1032  ships, 


Trade  in  Bullion. 


287 


with  424,338  tonnage ;  and  the  Saint  Katherine’s 
Docks  to  905  ships,  with  223,397  tonnage.  Very 
extensive  also  are  the  Commercial  Docks  on  the 
south  side  of  the  Thames. 

In  general  commerce  London  engrosses  nearly 
a  fourth  of  the  whole  business  of  Great  Britain. 

It  has  almost  a  monopoly  in  another  branch  of 
trade.  Nearly  all  the  gold  and  silver  bullion  and 
specie,  either  imported  or  exported,  enters,  quits, 
or  passes  through  the  town  in  which  the  Bank  of 
England  and  the  Mint  are  lodged.  In  1865  Lon¬ 
don  received  gold  valued  at  £5,045,000  from  Aus¬ 
tralia,  ,£4,298,000  from  the  United  States,  and 
£"5,126,000  from  other  places  ;  in.  all,  £14,469,000, 
of  which  rather  more  than  half  was  sent  abroad 
again — £6,072,000  to  the  Continent  of  Europe, 
£575, ooo  to  India  and  Egypt,  £1,581,000  to  Bra¬ 
zil  and  South  America,  and  £  245,000  to  other  pla¬ 
ces.  In  the  same  year £4,923,000  came  to  Lon¬ 
don  in  silver  from  Mexico,  £72,000  from  Brazil, 
£1,654,000  from  the  Continent,  and  £306,000 
from  other  parts;  in  all, £6, 955, 000  :  and  of  this 
nearly  all  was  sent  abroad  again — £3,801,000  to 
India  and  Egypt,  £5,703,000  to  the  Continent, 
and  £193,000  to  other  parts. 

These  figures  show  an  excess  of  imports  over 
exports,  in  gold  and  silver  bullion  and  specie,  of 
£6,254,000.  The  increased  wealth  of  the  coun¬ 
try,  however,  is  by  no  means  indicated  by  the  in¬ 
crease  of  gold  and  silver  in  its  possession.  Wealth  « 
is  now  understood  to  be  neither  money  by  itself, 


288 


Motley  and  Wealth. 


according  to  the  shallow  systems  of  economical 
science  that  preceded  the  times  of  Adam  Smith, 
nor,  as  Adam  Smith  defined  it,  u  the  annual  prod¬ 
uce  of  the  land  and  labor  of  society but  “  all 
useful  or  agreeable  things  which  possess  ex¬ 
changeable  value.”  This,  indeed,  is  the  oldest 
view  of  all.  “  We  call  wealth*”  said  Aristotle, 
“  every  thing  whose  value  is  measured  by  money  ” 
— money  being  the  most  convenient  standard  of 
measurement,  or  the  most  portable  representative 
of  the  wealth,  which  is  composed  alike  of  land  and 
its  material  products,  such  as  the  houses  that  are 
built  on  it,  the  corn  that  is  grown  from  it,  the  min¬ 
erals  that  are  dug  out  of  it,  and  the  thousand  and 
one  manufactured  articles  that  result  from  its  cul¬ 
tivation  ;  of  the  labor  that  is  expended  upon  those 
operations,  and  in  all  other  exercises  of  muscle 
and  brain,  and  of  incorporeal,  transferable  proper¬ 
ty,  like  shares  in  trading  companies,  mortgages  on 
material  possessions,  or  property  in  the  public 
funds.  u  A  simple  invention  it  was,”  says  Mr.  Car¬ 
lyle,  “  in  the  Old-world  grazier,  sick  of  lugging  his 
slow  ox  about  the  country  till  he  got  it  bartered  for 
corn  or  oil,  to  take  a  piece  of  leather,  and  thereon 
scratch  or  stamp  the  mere  figure  of  an  ox,  or  pecus , 
put  it  in  his  pocket,  and  call  it  pecunia ,  money. 
Yet  hereby  did  barter  grow  sale  ;  the  leather  mon¬ 
ey  is  now  golden  and  paper,  and  all  miracles  have 
been  out-miracled ;  for  there  are  Rothschilds  and 
English  National  Debts  p  and  whoso  has  sixpence 
is  sovereign — to  the  length  of  sixpence — over  all 


Trade  in  Mo?iey. 


289 


men ;  commands  cooks  to  feed  him,  philosophers 
to  teach  him,  kings  to  mount  guard  over  him  to 
the  length  of  sixpence.”  Money  now  really  con¬ 
sists,  not  only  of  the  coin  issued  from  the  Mint 
and  of  the  notes  issued  from  the  Bank  of  England 
on  the  security  of  the  coin  or  bullion  retained  in 
its  coffers,  and  of  the  debts  for  which  Government 
is  answerable,  but  also  of  all  other  marketable 
symbols  of  property.  Bills  of  exchange,  promisso¬ 
ry  notes,  and  all  the  various  paper  equivalents  of 
wealth,  real  or  assumed,  are  now  of  vastly  more 
extensive  currency  than  that  which  has  the  Mint 
mark,  or  the  Bank  of  England  stamp. 

And  the  trade  in  these  materials  is,  nowadays, 
the  most  gigantic  of  all.  The  farmer  and  the  mi¬ 
ner  bring  to  light  the  buried  treasures  of  the  earth  5 
the  manufacturer  makes  those  treasures  available 
for  use ;  and  the  merchant  either  brings  them  to¬ 
gether  for  manufacture,  or,  when  they  are  manufac¬ 
tured,  sends  them  far  and  near  to  every  district 
that  is  in  need  of  them  \  but  it  is  the  banker  who 
provides  the  circulating  medium,  without  which 
none  of  those  businesses  could  conveniently  or  effi¬ 
ciently  be  carried  on.  The  richest  and  most  influ¬ 
ential  men  in  all  the  world  are  now  the  bankers 
and  bill-discounters,  the  negotiators  of  foreign 
wants,  and  other  dealers  in  public  credit.  Hence 
the  vast  importance  of  the  Stock  Exchange,  in 
which  millions  pass  each  day  from  hand  to  hand, 
partly  in  answer  to  the  healthy  requirements  of 
trade,  and  partly,  perhaps  chiefly,  in  furtherance 

T 


290 


The  Stock  Exchange. 


of  wanton  and  often  ruinous  speculation.  The 
great  financial  question  of  the  day  is,  how  to  regu¬ 
late  this  institution  so  as  best  to  meet  the  needs 
of  honest  trading,  and  to  leave  least  room  for  the 
gambling  and  fraud  which  are  the  chief  causes  of 
money  panics  and  commercial  disasters.  But 
there  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  magnitude  of 
its  operations  and  the  extent  of  its  influence.  In 
1865,  besides  all  its  traffic  in  the  English  funds,  in 
foreign  shares,  and  in  the  shares  of  the  innumerable 
public  companies  already  in  existence,  the  Stock 
Exchange  was  the  scene  of  negotiation  for  six  new 
foreign  loans,  amounting  in  all  to  ^46,236,363,  and 
for  two  hundred  and  eighty-seven  companies  with 
a  professed  capital  of  ^106,995,000,  all  available 
for  speculative  purposes,  and  with  an  actual  de¬ 
posit  of  ^12,174,790. 

But  the  commercial  importance  of  London  is 
greater  even  than  any  statistics  would  imply.  The 
chief  centre  of  trading  life,  vast  transactions  are 
carried  on  in  it,  which  are  in  no  way  represented 
by  its  own  imports  and  exports.  Its  merchants 
buy  in  other  markets  goods  for  other  markets,  with¬ 
out  their  being  required  to  pass  through  London 
at  all.  Men  like  George  Peabody,  the  Barings, 
and  the  Rothschilds  sit  like  kings  upon  commer¬ 
cial  thrones,  and  issue  mandates  that  are  obeyed, 
in  every  quarter  of  the  world,  with  a  promptitude 
and  thoroughness  that  despots  might  envy.  And 
the  wealth  that  they  win  by  their  enterprise  makes 
them  richer  than  many  sovereigns.  To  understand 


London  Stone 


The  Empire  of  Commerce.  293 

the  profits  of  London  merchants,  we  must  measure 
their  landed  possessions,  and  see  the  places  they 
have  attained  in  the  ranks  of  the  aristocracy. 
From  the  time  when  commerce  began  to  be  im¬ 
portant  in  English  history,  the  wealth  and  worth 
of  its  leading  men  have  won  for  them  high  rank 
and  honor ;  and  more  great  families  owe  their  ori¬ 
gin  to  trade  than  to  any  other  calling.  Some  have 
attained  nobility,  like  the  Dukes  of  Leeds,  who 
trace  their  pedigree  to  Ned  Osborne,  the  London 
’prentice  of  Queen  Elizabeth’s  days,  and  the  family 
of  Barings,  now  possessed  of  two  titles,  Ashburton 
and  Northbrooke.  Others  are  no  less  eminent  as 
commoners,  whether  their  eminence  is  in  their 
wealth,  like  that  of  the  Rothschilds,  or  their  worth, 
like  that  of  Cobden,  a  merchant  himself,  or  Glad¬ 
stone,  the  son  of  a  merchant. 

Here,  then,  our  brief  sketches  of  famous  Lon¬ 
don  merchants  come  to  an  end.  We  have  seen 
how  the  general  influences  of  civilization  have 
been  wisely  strengthened  by  a  few  notable  men  in 
the  direction  of  trading  enterprise.  The  few  whose 
lives  we  have  glanced  at  are  only  conspicuous  spe¬ 
cimens  of  the  many  who  have  made  London  and 
its  commerce  what  they  now  are.  They  are  only 
some  of  the  captains  of  a  vast  army,  which  has 
been  fighting  zealously  for  English  advancement 
and  the  civilization  of  the  whole  world  during  half 
a  dozen  centuries. 

There  was  fighting  in  long  previous  centuries, 


294  The  Development  oj  Trade. 

but,  as  far  as  England  and  London  were  concern¬ 
ed,  only  by  an  untrained  rabble.  There  were  mer¬ 
chants  of  a  humbler  sort  in  very  ancient  times. 
Their  fundamental  principles  of  action  were  the 
same  as  those  of  the  most  enlightened  and  pros¬ 
perous  men  of  modern  times.  To  utilize  the  treas¬ 
ures  of  the  earth,  to  subject  them  to  skillful  handi¬ 
work,  directed  by  skillful  headwork,  and  then  to 
exchange  the  commodities  they  had  produced  for 
the  commodities  produced  by  others — this  was 
their  attempt.  But  at  first  the  attempt  was  neces¬ 
sarily  feeble.  The  best  workers  were  very  igno¬ 
rant,  and  they  were  opposed  by  people  more  igno¬ 
rant  than  themselves.  English  commerce  made 
but  poor  strides  until  its  worthies  learned  to  band 
themselves  together,  as  we  have  seen  them  doing 
in  the  trading  companies  and  the  guilds  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  That  was  the  first  effort  at  or¬ 
ganizing  the  great  army  of  commerce,  and  by 
this  means  famous  triumphs  were  attained.  In 
course  of  time,  however,  the  discipline  of  these 
guilds  and  companies  proved  oppressive  to  their 
most  enterprising  members,  who  broke  from  the 
ranks  to  achieve  special  triumphs,  either  as  inde¬ 
pendent  toilers  or  as  founders  of  new  trading  as¬ 
sociations,  which,  in  turn,  did  excellent  work,  and 
were  superseded  when  that  work  was  done.  So  it 
was  with  men  like  Whittington  and  Gresham ;  so 
with  such  institutions  as  the  Turkey  and  East  India 
Companies. 

In  the  mean  while  commerce  progressed.  Un- 


The  Progress  of  Trade. 


295 


like  the  armies  of  contending  nations,  in  which 
disaffection  is  dangerous  and  mutiny  fatal,  the 
great  army  of  peaceful  traders  profited  by  every 
disaffection,  and  every  mutiny  which  had  any  prin¬ 
ciple  of  wisdom  and  justice  in  it  has  been  wholly 
beneficial.  The  only  evils  that  have  arisen  have 
been  those  based  on  false  views  of  trade  and  its 
transactions,  exhibited  in  crises  like  those  of  the 
South  Sea  Bubble  and  its  bursting,  and  the  many 
smaller  panics  of  recent  times.  These  evils,  how¬ 
ever,  were  short-lived,  and  very  slight  in  compari¬ 
son  of  the  good  that  has  prevailed  in  spite  of  them. 
Commerce  has  advanced  with  giant  strides,  and 
no  part  of  the  world  has  gained  more  by  the  ad¬ 
vance  than  London. 

On  the  ruins  of  an  old  Roman  camp  has  arisen 
the  richest  and  busiest  city  in  the  world.  Its  ships 
bring  the  produce  of  every  clime  to  add  to  the 
comfort  and  welfare  of  its  citizens,  and  all  con¬ 
nected  with  them ;  but  more,  its  ships  bear  civili¬ 
zation  and  all  its  blessings  to  every  clime.  Sure¬ 
ly  then,  in  spite  of  the  selfishness  of  some  and  the 
folly  of  others,  a  high  place  in  the  catalogue  of 
heroes  and  philanthropists  is  due  to  Famous  Lon¬ 
don  Merchants. 


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